


I Am The Fire

by of_course_it_is_for_you



Series: SuperPowers AU [1]
Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Super Powers AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-06
Updated: 2015-08-31
Packaged: 2018-03-29 06:53:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 25
Words: 71,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3886534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/of_course_it_is_for_you/pseuds/of_course_it_is_for_you
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are people that have super powers, there are people that don't. Suddenly, people with powers start to disappear and tensions are rising between those with powers and those without. </p><p>Watch as the Carmilla gang navigates in a world where having powers no longer means that you're the safest ones. </p><p>My version of a SuperPowers AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey!
> 
> This is my first fanfic ever, so please be nice! I'd love constructive criticism, and please point out if there are any typos!
> 
> Everyone that has powers has more than one, and I'll keep track of them in the end notes as they appear. 
> 
> Thanks for giving this fic a shot!

You’re running through the forrest, and you can hear the moans of the zombies slowly shuffling behind you. There were a lot more of them than you anticipated in that abandoned school, which is why you’re now booking it. Damnit, you really needed those supplies.

 

Of course you trip, because theres a tree root sticking out of the ground that you didn’t see, and suddenly the zombies are nearly on top of you.

 

“Hey, L, wake up!” one of them shouts.

 

Wait, what? Why would a zombie—

 

You feel something tickling your nose, and your eyes snap open to reveal that you aren’t in a zombie apocalypse. You’re at Silas, in the cafeteria, where you’d apparently fallen asleep.

 

Danny, LaFontaine, and Perry are all staring at you. Danny and LaF with amusement, Perry with concern. Apparently Danny had been the one to tickle your nose, because her hand is near you, and she drops it as soon as she realizes you’re awake.

 

“Are you doing okay, Laura?” Perry asks. You can totally feel that she’s really worried for you, because, well, you have empathy powers. Yeah, you’re one of the people with super powers (or, just, ‘powers’, is what most people say to refer to you). You know that Perry’s probably worried about you because this is the third time this week you’ve accidentally fallen asleep at lunch.

 

“Yeah, I’m okay,” you respond. “It’s just midterms. I’ve been up all night studying.”

 

“If you need any help studying, just let me know,” Danny says before taking a bite out of an apple. “I’ve been a TA for most of the classes you’re in this year.”

 

“Yeah, let Danny shed a light on the subject,” LaF says before cracking up. Danny rolls her eyes and Perry groans.

 

“You have to make puns about my powers everyday?” Danny asks, but she’s smiling and you know that she isn’t upset at all.

 

LaF nods, “Of course. If I didn’t make fun of you for having electricity/fire generation, who would?”

 

“I can zap the brain right out of you right now, if you’d like,” Danny smirks. “Your plants won’t do you much good then, would they?”

 

“Hey, you know it’s all organic matter that I can manipulate, not just plants. And anyways, Perr is right here so she’d fix me up in no time,” they lean against Perry, who does, in fact, have health manipulation. And force field generation, but hardly anybody knows that.

 

You can feel Perry’s excitement spike slightly. You know its from LaF. You smirk to yourself, wondering when those two were going to figure out that they were both into each other.

 

You pick up your empty lunch tray and grab everyone else’s trash before standing up and throwing it away in the trash can. You know that the discussion has turned to something a little more dark because you can feel all of their aura’s turn serious as you’re walking back.

 

“Do you think they’re going to do anything to keep the campus safe?” LaF asks as you sit back down. They’re leaning forward with their elbows on the table and chin on their hands, with a serious expression on their face. The subject had turned to exactly what you thought it had. Your mind flashes to the headlines you’d read this morning on your computer.

 

THREE DEAD ON ACCOUNT OF POWERS

FAMILY WITH POWERS CLAIMED TO BE ATTACKED BY RADICALS IN THEIR HOME, STILL IN CRITICAL CONDITION

ANOTHER TWO POWERS GO MISSING, POLICE STILL INVESTIGATING DISAPPEARANCES

 

It all started when people with powers started to disappear. Not like running away or leaving the city disappearing, but actually being kidnapped disappearing. At first they thought it was just a coincidence, but it seems that only powers get taken. The police didn’t really seem to be investigating, and nothing really appeared in the headlines. A group of powers took it into their own hands and stormed the police headquarters, demanding that an investigation into the missing people be started and that it be taken seriously. Non-powers saw that as a threat, and tensions were high. Now it seems that a small war is brewing, and nobody, especially powers, seemed safe.

 

“Of course they are, LaFontaine,” Perry responds. “They owe a duty to their students. They won’t just let people go around hurting other people.”

 

“Yeah, well, with such a small group of us, I wonder if they’d even bother at all,” LaF mumbles into their hands.

 

Out of everyone at the table, LaF seems the most tense. You know it’s because they’re used to being bullied and oppressed. You can read them really well. Actually, you can read everyone at this table really well, because you’ve been friends for over a year and you guys are all pretty close. They don’t even need to be projecting their feelings for you to pick up on it without physically touching them.

 

“I’m sure we’ll be fine as long as we don’t go wandering off on our own,” Perry says, putting her hand on LaF’s forearm, causing them to drop their arms to the table and look at her. “We’ll get through this. Just like we always have.”

 

LaF starts to feel calmer, because their mind is replaced with love rather than fear. You know that it's still prickling in the back of their mind, but that’s not what their focused on right now.

 

“I’m sure you’re right, Perr,” LaF smiles.

 

Your phone beeps, reminding you that you have your next class in five minutes.

 

“Class?” Danny asks.

 

You nod. “Yeah. History of Powers.”

 

“I’ll walk you there, my class is in that direction as well,” Danny smiles and you both stand up and say goodbye to Perry and LaF before heading back out into the drizzling rain. It had been raining substantially earlier, and at least now there was no need for an umbrella.

 

“I hear the worst of the storm is supposed to be tonight,” Danny says, a hint of concern present.

 

You sigh. “Fantastic.”

 

“You’ll call me if you have any problems in your apartment?” Danny asks.

 

You glance over at her and nod. “I know my apartment complex can be pretty run down sometimes, but I’m sure I’ll be fine. If anything does come up, though, you’ll be my first call.”

 

“Hey! Lawrence! Hollis!”

 

You both turn around to find Kirsch sprinting towards you, smile plastered on his face.

 

Danny rolls her eyes. “What do you want, Kirsch?”

 

He isn’t deterred by Danny’s apparent lack of excitement to see him. “There’s going to be a huge Zeta party this Friday and I thought I’d invite you two hotties—”

 

Danny growls and Kirsch corrects himself.

 

“I thought I’d invite you two and your friends because it’s going to be the best party yet!”

 

“Thanks, Kirsch,” you say. “I have to get going to class, but I’ll think about it for sure.”

 

Kirsch nods, “Alright. Well, see you two there!”

 

He turns and sprints off again, probably to go find another group of people to invite. Danny rolls her eyes and you two continue walking.

 

You can physically feel how annoyed Danny is. “He’s not that bad.”

 

“Not that bad! Remember the last Zeta party where they started throwing each other into the pool? It was freezing out, I’m not sure how they didn’t get hypothermia.”

 

You chuckled at the memory. When all of the Zetas had climbed out, most of them looked like wet puppies.

 

“I’d rather stay in and just watch Dr. Who,” you admit.

 

“Well I’d rather watch Star Wars, but I suppose I can put up with Dr. Who,” Danny says.

 

You roll your eyes and nudge her. The force doesn't move her at all, of course, but it's the thought that counts.

 

“We’ll make a night out of it. Invite LaF and Perr, make some popcorn. And we can vote on what we watch,” you say.

 

“That sounds great to me,” Danny nods and you both stop walking because you both have to go opposite ways. She brings you in for a bear hug and you can tell that there’s still some sort of deep love there even though she does her best to hide it.

 

You used to be together, but you realized that it couldn’t work out for you. Danny had understood, and she's trying to get over it as best as she can, but obviously there are still some feelings there. 

 

You both pull away and Danny smiles down at you, “But we are all still on for tomorrow, right Hollis?”

 

Your mind blanks for a second but you remember what she’s talking about. “The arena. Of course I’ll be there. It’s our weekly ritual.”

 

You walk into class and expect a wall of emotions to hit you, and they do, but they’re different than you were expecting. People are whispering to each other and you sit down in your seat near the front to find that the professor isn’t at her desk like she normally is.

 

“Alright class, settle down,” the TA, Betty, calls out. The class quiets, wanting her to continue and explain why the professor isn’t present. You can feel tell that Betty feels a little nervous and worried, and that causes you to be a little on edge as well.

 

“Professor Ackerman couldn’t make it today, so today is going to be slightly different than originally planned. I have emailed everyone their partners for the next project. Remember that each pair must create a presentation and teach the class about whatever particular subject that has been given to them. Each presentation must last around ten minutes. In three weeks each group will present, so everything must be ready by then. This will be counted as your midterm.

 

“Because the Professor is absent I have decided that each group should take the class time to meet and start researching. Please check your emails and head over to the library to start.”

 

The class realizes that she’s done talking and they all start pulling out their phones or computers to check who their partners are.

 

You sigh and pull your phone out of your pocket and open your email.

 

No.

 

No no no no no. The one girl you never wanted to work with.

 

Carmilla Karnstein.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here are the powers we know so far:
> 
> Laura- empathy
> 
> Perry- health manipulation, force field generation
> 
> LaF- organic manipulation
> 
> Danny- fire/electricity manipulation
> 
> Kirsch- you'll find out!
> 
> Every single power that I use I refer to http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Superpower_Wiki .
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks!


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We meet Carmilla in this one! She sure is... Carmilla.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Power notes are at the end.

“Oh crap,” you mutter, closing your eyes. Maybe when you opened them again the name in the email would be different. You were just imagining this, right?

 

Wrong.

 

The truth is you barely know Carmilla. She always walks into class late, and sits in the back of class and tries to be invisible. But when the professor tries to make everyone part of the conversation, it’s pretty difficult, and every single answer she’s been forced to give has been sarcastic and rude.

 

Also Danny has been a TA for a few of her classes, and she describes her as an absolute nightmare. When she does turn in her work, it’s arrogant and borderline disrespectful. She obviously doesn’t play well with others. Now, because of this stupid project, you have to try and work with her, because there’s no way that you’ll have time to finish it on your own. Plus, you both still have to give the presentation together.

 

You wait for almost everyone to clear out before you stand up and see Carmilla sitting at the back table, picking at her fingernails. You walk closer and get your first real look at her; up until now you’ve tried to just ignore her and avoid eye contact.

 

 _Wow. She really is gorgeous_ , you think to yourself, before shaking your head. _Not the point, Hollis_.

 

“Uh, hey,” you say as you walk up. “You must be Carmilla.”

 

Carmilla lazily looks up at you, clearly bored. “Must I be?”

 

You hold back an eye roll and a sigh. Yep, this was going to be tough.

 

“I’m Laura. Laura Hollis,” you stick your hand out, hoping that this girl has at least a little bit of manners.

 

She looks at you like you must be joking, and instead of shaking your hand she nods. “Well, it’s a pleasure cupcake.” Okay, so at least that didn’t seem too sarcastic.

 

“You two wouldn’t happen to be stalling, would you?” Betty calls from the desk.

 

“Of course not,” you say at the same time that Carmilla says, “Yes.”

 

“Well I’d suggest you both get going before the Professor finds out that that you can’t follow instructions,” Betty says back, and you can tell that she’s really done with Carmilla more than she is mad at you. In fact, you’re not even sure that was really aimed at you at all.

 

Carmilla sighs and picks up her bag before following you out of the classroom. You pull out your phone and reread the email, even though you sat in your seat and memorized it while others in the class were pairing up and heading to the library. “Our topic is the Dark Riots,” you announce.

 

When you glance over at her, you can see that she’s not really paying attention to you at all. You sort of expected it, but the least she could do is not walk so fast so that you had to try and keep up with her. She’s like, two inches taller than you. How can she walk so fast?

 

“Did you even hear me?” you ask when she doesn’t say anything.

 

“I happen to have ears,” Carmilla responds. “And they tend to work.”

 

You can’t help the frustrated huff that comes out of your mouth this time. Honestly, what had you done to annoy her? You don’t say anything for the rest of the walk because you know that she’s probably not going to respond to anything anyways.

 

When you enter the library Carmilla immediately heads for one of the back tables and plops down, swiftly pulling a book from her bag. You follow her and when you see that she just plans on sitting there reading a book, you get a bit frustrated.

 

“So we have the Dark Riots,” you repeat.

 

“So you said,” Carmilla responds, turning a page.

 

“That means we have to do research. On the Dark Riots,” you try and keep your voice from sounding as annoyed as you are while pulling out your laptop from your bag.

 

“Sounds like a plan.” Nothing of hers moves except her eyes scanning the page.

 

“Research. _Together,_ ” you say through gritted teeth.

 

Carmilla sighs and puts down her book. For a second you think you’ve won, but stands up and sets her bag on the table before putting her book into it.

 

“Wait. Hold up, what are you doing?” you ask.

 

“Since you can’t seem to be quiet in a _library_ , I’m going to go read somewhere else,” Carmilla says as she slings her bag on her shoulder.

 

“You can’t just leave! We’re supposed to be doing research! We’re still technically in class, remember?”

 

“I’ll email it to you. Have fun, sundance,” she says over her shoulder as she walks towards the exit of the library.

 

You quickly shove your laptop back into your bag and follow her.

 

“Carmilla!” You call just as you reach her. You can see her visibly tense before spinning around.

 

“What?” she snaps rather harshly.

 

“I’m not letting you ditch like this. We have to research the Dark Riots and I can’t do this project all by myself.”

 

Carmilla brings her hand up to the bridge of her nose like it is physically hurting her to be having this conversation right now. “Look. If you email me your research as soon as you have it I’ll compile both of our research onto a Google Doc that we can both access. Now, if you’ll excuse me—”

 

“Why don’t you want to work with me?”

 

This question seems to be one that Carmilla wasn’t expecting. For a second she seems caught off guard, but almost instantly her apathetic front was back up. “Who says I don’t want to work with you, cupcake?”

 

“My name is Laura, not cupcake. And secondly, you seem to be trying to get rid of me so apparently you don’t want to work with me,” you respond as evenly as you can.

 

“I’ve just got better things to do with my time than sit in a library and research the Dark Riots,” Carmilla responds.

 

“Right. Because wasting time reading is the same as wasting time doing research for the project that is at least fifteen percent of our grade.”

 

Carmilla rolls her eyes. “Whatever you say. See you later, cutie.”

 

You consider a moment letting her go, but you know that you really need this grade. You chase after her once again and put your hand on her shoulder to spin around.

 

The contact enables you to get an empathic reading on her. Whoa. You’ve never felt anyone with such a dark aura. You can’t go into much more detail because by the time you process anything she smacks your hand off of her.

 

“You seriously need to learn when people are walking away from you,” Carmilla says angrily.

 

“I just, uh, wanted to make an actual meeting time. Since you don’t seem to have time for it today.”

 

Carmilla rolls her eyes. “When did you have in mind?”

 

You hadn’t really gotten that far. You sorta figured that she would blow up in your face and that you wouldn’t be able to talk about setting up another meeting time at all. “Uhm… Saturday afternoon? Two o’clock?”

 

“Fine by me,” she spins on her heels and stalks off in the direction she had been going. You definitely were not staring at her ass in those leather pants before you turned around and headed back into the library.

 

* * * *

You get back to your apartment, which is a couple blocks away from campus, a few hours later. You had emailed all of the research you had found so far to Carmilla, so you hoped that she at least would make the online document like she said she would. Once you open the door you set your bag down and slip off your shoes before making your way to the kitchen. (“It’s small, L, just like you,” LaF had said as soon as they saw it).

 

You shoot off a text to both Perry and LaF in a group message saying that they were invited Friday to watch a movie when you receive an email from Carmilla linking you to the Google Doc.

 

“Well that was fast for seemingly not caring,” you say to yourself as you open it up and see that there were a couple of things on there that you didn’t put. You refrain from replying to the email with something similar to what you just said, because you really don’t need Carmilla pissed off at you more than she already is. You want the project to be good, after all.

 

A few minutes later LaF responds and says that they were planning on going to the Zeta party on Friday, and that Kirsch had said that he invited all of them. Perry responds that she was also going to go in order to keep LaFontaine out of trouble. Then she suggested that they hang out and watch a movie tonight, since it was the middle of the week and everyone could use a little relaxation time. You send a text to Danny, who says that she’d be able to make it after her Summer Society meeting around eight.

 

Once everyone is notified you set your phone down on the counter and check your cupboards for a snack to eat. That’s when you realize that you’re completely out of popcorn, and you’d promised that you’d have some available for tonight. You check the time and see that it’s nearly six. That’s plenty of time to go to the store and grab popcorn and a litre of Coke. (You have grape soda but you know that LaF prefers cola to any other sort of soda).

 

You grab a jacket, as it had started to get a bit chilly while you were walking back from Silas, grab your backpack from your room, and slip your shoes back on and head out the door. The sun is almost down, not that you can really see it through the abundance of gray clouds. You just hope to make it back to your apartment before it actually starts to rain.

 

It takes you around fifteen minutes to make it to the store and about five minutes to actually purchase the items. You also had grabbed a box of cookies because you were almost out of the one that you had in your apartment.

 

You’re walking back when you decide to take the shortcut way because it really looks like it’s about to start to downpour. It’s through more alleyways but you’re freezing and you just want to make it back to your apartment. 

 

In hind sight, that probably wasn’t your brightest idea.

 

You can hear footsteps behind you and you spin around. There’s a figure with a black hoodie and black jeans on.

 

“I know Krav Maga and I have pepper spray,” you shout, but the man just laughs.

 

“It’s funny that you think you’re any sort of scary,” he says, and suddenly you’re grabbed from behind. You try to kick the person behind you, but before you can you hear a buzzing noise and then you’re on the ground and don’t have control over your muscles. Damn, whoever they were had the electric rods.

 

You’re so dead.

 

Suddenly the two people that were hovering over you are pulled back. It sounds like they’re getting punched.

 

“Who the fuck are you?” one of them grunts.

 

“Get out of here,” another voice responds. Whoever they are, they’re clearly using a voice changer, because it sounds nasally and robotic.

 

“Like you can tell me what to—” the second person that attacked you is interrupted by another hit, probably to the stomach.

 

You’re slowly gaining back the use of your muscles, and you sort of sit up and scoot away against the opposite wall, trying to get as far away from as possible.

 

Your savior was facing away from you, with a dark green hoodie (hood up, of course) and black jeans on. The two guys that attacked you were sitting on the ground, hoods down and blood running from their noses.

 

“Would you like to continue to sit here or would you two idiots like to get out while you can still breathe?” green hoodie says. The two guys comically glance at each other before scrambling up and sprinting off down the alley.

 

By this point you can pretty much stand, so you get up and walk towards them.

 

“Thanks, uh…” you trail off, hoping that whoever it was would give you their name.

 

“Don’t mention it,” they don’t turn to face you. “Get back home. It’s about to rain.”

 

You look up and see that they’re right. You turn around to grab your backpack, which had fallen during the struggle, and when you turn back around you see that whoever it was that had saved you was gone.

 

That was strange. You didn’t even hear footsteps. Come to think of it, you didn’t hear them approach you, either.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here are the powers we know so far:
> 
> Laura- empathy
> 
> Perry- health manipulation, force field generation
> 
> LaF- organic manipulation
> 
> Danny- fire/electricity manipulation
> 
> Kirsch- you'll find out!
> 
> Carmilla- does she even have powers?
> 
> Every single power that I use I refer to http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Superpower_Wiki .
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laura processes things... and we meet Will! Is he going to be a douche like he is in the series?
> 
> EDIT: I started to write this fic before it had been announced that Will's last name was Luce... I went back and changed the only part where I think I said his last name, but if you see I missed something, please let me know!

You don’t want to say that you ran back to your apartment, that you weren’t scared about what happened, but that would be a lie.

 

Truth is, that terrified you to death. You were almost kidnapped. You almost weren’t able to continue living your life. You almost weren’t able to graduate college, become a journalist, and travel the world. You almost became another statistic, another headline, another missing power.

 

You didn’t relax until your door was locked. You know that the likelihood that you’ll be attacked again is next to nothing, especially since the stranger in the green hood beat them up pretty badly. Oh god, what if they followed you home?

 

 _No, they ran the other way_ , you remind yourself. _Come on, Laura, shake these thoughts from your head_. You know that it will only make you worry and stress out more, and you really can’t have that. You’re fine. You weren’t taken. You will continue to live.

 

_A complete stranger saved you._

 

 

You take the contents from your shopping trip and put them away (you hope that the soda will chill before the others arrive), and head to take a shower. They’ve always relaxed you when you were stressing and you hoped that this time was no different. The warm water runs over your skin and you can feel yourself loosen up, but you know that this event will stay with you for a while.

 

The next thing you have to do is decide if you’re going to report this. Hell, if you’re even going to tell your friends about it. Perry’s blood pressure would sky rocket, LaF would probably say something about going after and catching the guys, and it would drive Danny to never let you out of her sight. You know that you can take care of yourself, you were just stupid and had your guard down. Nothing had ever happened to you before while you were away, so why would it happen now?

 

It’s the classic _you never realize it can happen to you until it does_.

 

You know what had happened, what you hadn’t been prepared for, and you’re now going to learn how to protect yourself more than you currently do. Krav Maga and pepper spray work against normal thugs in the city, not people attempting to kidnap powers. You need to work on your telekinetic blast. As soon as you and your dad had both found out that you possessed another power, your dad had been trying to get you to perfect your control over it. During the later years of high school you were actually able to move small objects, but you still needed to work on the amount of force you could produce from the blast. Besides, it had been over a year and you probably would have to work your way back up.

 

You suppose you knew what you were going to work on tomorrow when you and the others went to the power arena to let off some steam.

 

It’s another fifteen minutes before you feel relaxed enough to step out of the shower and put some comfy clothes on. You check your phone and see that you have a missed call and a text from Perry, asking if her or LaF needed to bring anything. You almost chuckle to yourself as you respond that you have everything that you guys would need to have a movie night. Perry then responded that her and LaF were on the way.

 

Both of them lived on campus, because Perry was a floor don and LaF “enjoyed being on campus, baby. You can wake up a half hour before class and everything is accessible.” Besides, everyone knows that LaF probably would have accidentally killed or maimed themselves if Perry wasn’t there to keep an eye on the experiments that LaF had in their room.

 

You grab some blankets from your room and threw them on the couch and the papasan chair (where LaF normally curled up on movie nights). You then turn on the Wii U that your dad had graciously gotten you for your birthday and click on Netflix. There’s a knock on the door a few minutes later, and you pause the _Parks and Rec_  episode and almost call out to come inside before you remembered that you had locked the door upon returning. When you open the door LaF is standing there, smiling, with Perry behind her holding a tupperware container.

 

“Long time no see, L,” LaF walks inside and takes their shoes off before immediately heading to their usual chair. Perry smiles, and you know that she’s trying to apologize for LaF’s behavior, but honestly if you hadn’t come to expect it by now then you wouldn’t really be their friend.

 

“I brought cookies. I know you said you were almost out the other day and you hadn’t had time to run to the store,” Perry says as she steps inside and also slips her shoes off.

 

“You didn’t have to,” you say, taking the container from her and heading into the kitchen to grab your own store bought cookies and setting them on the coffee table in the living room. LaF has the Wii U GamePad and is scrolling through things to watch, while Perry is sitting on your couch and pulls a blanket around her legs.

 

“What are we going to watch?” LaF asks as you head back into the kitchen.

 

“I’m good with whatever,” you respond as you pull out the popcorn and put it in the microwave. Afterwards you grab a few cups and fill them with Coke.

 

“Oh, how about something Disney,” Perry suggests.

 

“In that case I vote _Lilo & Stitch_,” LaF responds.

 

“We’ve watched that many times, LaFontaine,” Perry responds. “Just because you could probably watch that movie every day doesn’t mean that we all can.”

 

“Fine. Oh hey, _School of Rock_! Let’s watch that!” You can actually feel LaF get excited at spotting this movie.

 

“I’ve actually never seen that,” you say as you bring the drinks and plop down next to Perry.

 

“Come on, Perr! How can you say no to Jack Black?” LaF pouts.

 

Perry sighs, but she’s smiling and you know there’s no way that she’ll say no. “Alright. Let’s watch it.”

 

LaF fist pumps in success and you hear the microwave ding. You quickly go and grab it before pouring it into a bowl and heading back to the couch.

 

Jack Black’s character is teaching the kids how to play _Smoke on the Water_ with their new instruments when there’s a knock on your door. You scramble to get it, and on the way there you stub your toe on the coffee table. LaF pauses the movie and laughs at you, and you resist the urge to flip them off as you open the door.

 

“Hey Danny,” you compose yourself, and you can still hear LaF chuckling behind you.

 

“Uh, hi?” she raises an eyebrow as she enters, knowing that she obviously missed something hilarious.

 

“Don’t worry about it,” you shake your head as you make your way back to the couch, making sure to leave room for Danny.

 

"If it still hurts…” Perry trails off, and you hold out your leg for her to grab. A few seconds later the pain subsides and you smile gratefully at her. Danny doesn’t even seem to notice as she takes her shoes off and joins you on the couch. She takes a handful of popcorn and glances at the screen.

 

“ _School of Rock_. Nice,” she nods, and you can see LaF staring at Perry with a satisfied expression before they start the movie back up.

 

Near the end of the movie, glancing around at everyone sing along to the final song that the band in the movie plays, you realize that with friends like these, you could probably make it through anything.

 

* * * *

The next morning you sleep in a bit, since you don’t have morning class. You sort of needed the rest after yesterday, anyways.

 

You head to campus around noon after a bit of studying, because your father made you get an on campus meal plan again and you know that LaF and Perry are probably eating lunch already.

 

You’re on your way to the Caf, walking through a less-trafficked part of campus, when you feel a familiar aura. You know it isn’t LaF, Perry, Danny, or Kirsch, because you can always pick up on their emotions, not just their presence. The only other person that you’ve come into contact with recently is Carmilla.

 

You know that she’s to your left, between two buildings, and as you walk closer you can hear that she’s talking to someone. Before you even realize what you’re doing, you’re up agains the wall around the corner from where the conversation is being held.

 

“What the hell were you thinking?” Carmilla asks.

 

“You know exactly what I was thinking, Kitty,” a familiar male voice responds.

 

“Will,” Carmilla sighs. Then it clicks. Will Luce, one of Kirsch’s bros. How does Carmilla know Will? She doesn’t seem like she would want anything to do with any sort of Zeta. And why does she let him call her Kitty? Anyone else would probably have gotten punched.

 

“I know exactly what I’m doing. The less you know about it, the better. I can’t have you getting in trouble again,” Will says. “Last time you almost didn’t make it out.”

 

Are they talking about dealing drugs or something? What’s going on?

 

“I have to get to class,” Will says after a few seconds. “I’ll see you around, Kitty.”

 

You speed walk towards the Caf before they realize that you were listening in. You risk a glance back and see Will walking in the opposite direction and Carmilla leaning up against the wall, looking seriously at her phone.

 

What the hell did you just overhear?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise there will be more power usage in the upcoming chapters. They're going to head to the arena, a place where powers go to let loose and use their abilities safely.   
>  
> 
> Here are the powers we know so far:
> 
> Laura- empathy
> 
> Perry- health manipulation, force field generation
> 
> LaF- organic manipulation
> 
> Danny- fire/electricity manipulation
> 
> Kirsch- you'll find out!
> 
> Carmilla- does she even have powers?
> 
> Will-???
> 
> Every single power that I use I refer to http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Superpower_Wiki .
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They head to the Arena!
> 
> So this chapter isn't as long as I wanted it to be, sorry about that! There was originally a lot more fighting/power usage, but I ran short on time. I promise exciting things will actually happen soon!

“Leave it to Kirsch to basically forget to schedule a room at the Arena,” Danny sighs, resting her forehead on her hands.

 

“Hey! I’ve been super busy this week!” Kirsch says, sitting down with his tray of food.

 

You’re at the cafeteria. By the time you arrived LaF and Perry had practically finished eating, and in the time you got your food Danny had also arrived. Now you were done eating, so you everyone was just waiting for Kirsch before you all headed to the Arena to blow off some steam.

 

“Good thing I had the mind to check if we we’re still reserved,” Perry says. “It’s a good thing we go there every week and the manager expects us. If not we might not have been able to get the room.”

 

Danny is still glaring at Kirsch, who doesn’t seem to be paying attention as he attacks his food.

 

“Could you not eat so loudly,” Danny says frustratedly, and you know she’s holding back the will to slap Kirsch.

 

“Sorry,” Kirsch looks somewhat embarrassed. “I’m trying to hurry so we can make it.”

 

“Maybe if you didn’t eat the amount of a horse every time you had a meal—”

 

“Hey! My power takes up a lot of my energy,” Kirsch says, once again stuffing his mouth with food.

 

“Oh, yeah, I’m sure turning into animals is so much harder than creating a substance out of thin air,” Danny takes the opportunity because Kirsch’s mouth is full.

 

“Well I guess we’ll just see how well that works out for you when I kick your ass!” Kirsch says through the food.

 

“Dude, please don’t talk with your mouth full,” LaF silences him.

 

This seems to stop the arguing, at least for now. Danny checks something on her phone and Kirsch continues to eat.

 

When Kirsch finishes (which isn’t very long), you head to the Arena a few blocks away in LaF’s car. Nearly the entire way Danny and Kirsch are bickering about who’s going to win in a face-off of powers, like they do every week, while LaF and Perry are talking about the party on Friday.

 

Finally you arrive and Perry leads the pack up to the front desk where SJ, the receptionist, greets you.

 

“Arguing like always?” SJ nods to Kirsch and Danny.

 

LaF nods, “it wouldn’t be a typical week without us, right?”

 

“I guess you aren’t wrong,” SJ laughs as she hands Perry the key card to the particular practice room that we always get and nods us down the hall.

 

“Thanks SJ!” you say, and everyone heads in the direction of the hallway that leads to all of the practice rooms.

 

“Hold up guys, I left my Arena bag at my dad’s when I was visiting this weekend, so I have to rent some clothes,” Kirsch says.

 

You glance at Danny and you think she looks about ready to punch Kirsch.

 

“Well hurry up then!” she frowns when Kirsch doesn’t move right away, afraid to upset her even more.

 

“What’s got your pants in a twist?” Kirsch asks as he steps in line behind a couple holding hands.

 

Danny glances around and see that everyone’s curious as to what her answer will be.

 

“It’s just, it’s been an entire week since I’ve used my powers and I really need to let loose,” she says, looking uncomfortable for the first time.

 

“You couldn’t make it to the firehouse this weekend?” Perry asks. Danny usually goes and helps the fireman train because she can provide controlled fire. Of course, she can’t put an entire building on fire or something. Usually they just ask her to set one room on fire at a time until the firemen can put it out, then they move on to the next room in the course and she then sets that one on fire until they put it out and repeat it over and over again. She follows them through camera feeds outside the rooms built in a warehouse and follows them to whichever rooms they go into. You went with her once, back when you were, well, dating, and you had to say she really loved doing it. You supposed it you had to restrain your powers most of the time it would really get to you, too.

 

You know that Perry heals LaF or others in your group all the time, and that LaF often goes to the greenhouse at Silas to help the plants grow. You’re not entirely sure what Kirsch does to blow off steam other than come here once a week. Maybe he goes running as different animals?

 

“…if only we had powers like L,” LaF pulls your attention back to the conversation, which you’d missed most of.

 

“I really don’t think you’d want empath powers, LaF,” you say. “It’ll make you go crazy.”

 

“Well, duh, that’s why you’re friends with us! Because you’re crazy,” they smirk and you lightly shove them in retaliation.

 

Kirsch steps up to the counter and tells the clerk his size. Once he gets his clothes he pulls them over the top of his work out clothes he has on and you all head to the room.

 

It’s basically the size of a high school gym, with extremely heavy (most of them over one ton) metal and rubber balls of all sizes, and an assortment of dummies (all of which are fire, water, and poison, and pretty much anything proof). The entire room is pure white, at least, for now.

 

“What setting do we want it at today?” Perry asks as most of you scramble to get your gear on.

 

“I was hoping for something with at least one plant,” LaF smirks.

 

“You say that every week,” Danny rolls her eyes, “It’s almost like that’s what you can control or something.”

 

“Ha ha,” they shove Danny to the ground. The only reason Danny lost her balance was because she was tying her shoe, but it was still funny.

 

“Hey, do you want to get your ass kicked too?” Danny stands up, “Because I will, LaFontaine, I will.”

 

“You wanna dance beanstalk?” LaF brings their fists together, but they can’t keep it together and they smile.

 

“Oh, you’re on,” Danny launches at LaF, tackling them to the ground.

 

“Hey, wait! We’re aren’t ready!” Perry yells, but you know it’s pointless. You walk up to the thermostat-like structure on the wall and click for something random.

 

The room shuffles through several looks quickly before it lands on one. Suddenly, tanks of water appear in the two corners of the room and the metal and rubber balls become clear and weighted with water. The floor is a slick dark blue tile and the walls and ceiling are a sky blue.

 

“That was certainly a nice choice!” Danny throws LaF off of her and slowly stands up. LaFontaine and Kirsch are cracking up, and Perry is attempting not to laugh. You can’t help but let a few giggles escape as you turn around back to the controller.

 

“Well if you’re going to complain about it,” you type in settings, and suddenly the back half of the room is filled with vines, and the front half is completely blank, like it was when you walked in. The balls turn back into metal and rubber.

 

“Thanks, L!” LaF pulls some vines and slaps Danny lightly in the face, taunting. “Let’s do this, firebird.”

 

Danny rolls her eyes and suddenly her hands are curled up into fists and you know where this is going. They light on fire and LaF’s smirk is whipped off their face.

 

“Oh crap!” They back wheel and pull the vines in front of them, blocking the fireballs thrown at them.

 

“I feel like they could use someone to mix up their fight,” Kirsch smiles, and he shape shifts into a tiger before bounding off towards Danny. Before he can tackle her, however, she hears him and she ducks out of the way.

 

You turn your attention away from the three fighting and you look back to Perry, who is watching them intently. She usually just sits on the side, watching in case anybody gets hurt so she can help.

 

“Hey, Perry?” you ask.

 

She turns to you, smiling, “What can I help you with?”

 

“I would really appreciate it if you could help me with a power of mine that,” you say. “It’s been a while since I’ve used it, and, well…”

 

Perry puts a comforting arm on your shoulder. Somehow, even though you’re the empath, she can read you well. “Whatever you need, Laura. What type of power are you speaking about?”

 

You breathe in and out again before you answer. “I can create a telekinetic blast.”

 

Perry’s smile widens. “I can definitely help you with that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We finally know Kirsch's power!
> 
> Here are the powers we know so far:
> 
> Laura- empathy, telekinetic blast 
> 
> Perry- health manipulation, force field generation
> 
> LaF- organic manipulation
> 
> Danny- fire/electricity manipulation
> 
> Kirsch- shapeshifting, specifically animals
> 
> Carmilla- does she even have powers?
> 
> Will-???
> 
> Every single power that I use I refer to http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Superpower_Wiki .
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laura gets roped into going to the Zeta party. Things definitely get a bit weird.

You refuse to go to the Zeta party tonight. Refuse. You would really rather use your time studying, because you’re actually really worried you’re going to fail your midterms.

 

“Oh, come on L, live a little! You’ve been studying for the entire day,” LaF says while you’re walking back from the library. They said they’d give you a ride back to your place— but you didn’t think it would involve them persuading you to go to the party.

 

“Why would I want to spend my Friday night watching a bunch of frat boys getting wasted and throwing each other into pools?” you ask.

 

“You know it’s not that ba—okay, so it is that bad. But it is hilarious, am I right?” they chuckle as you both get into their car. You roll your eyes in response.

 

“Okay, what if I told you Carmilla Karnstein was going to be there?” LaF wiggles their eyebrows at you.

 

“You mean the rude, sarcastic, arrogant—”

 

“Whoa, tell me how you really feel,” they laugh. “I thought you said she made that Google Doc with all of the research? Weren’t you expecting her to do nothing at all?”

 

“Only after she refused to work with me!”

 

“Maybe she really is busy. I see her in the library all the time.”

 

“How do you even know she’s going to be there?” you ask, because the last time you checked you barely knew Carmilla and LaF had only seen her from a distance.

 

“I was walking from the library yesterday morning and I heard her complaining on the phone to someone about how she should’t have to watch over her imbecilic brother and that she shouldn’t be forced to go to a frat party because that’s the last thing she wants to do on a Friday night.”

 

“Why are we even having this conversation?” you try to change subjects, exasperated. You know the exact excuse that their going to use before they even say it.

 

“Because the other day when I asked you about the project the first thing you said was that the beautiful Carmilla Karnstein was your partner,” LaF smirks.

 

“You are definitely switching my words around,” you counter. They raise their eyebrows, and although it is technically true that you didn’t say that exact thing, you might as well have.

 

_“What’s got you all worked up?”_

 

 

_“I’m partners with Carmilla freaking Karnstein on my History of Powers project.”_

 

 

_“Oh, you mean the broody chick that sits in the back of class?”_

 

 

_“Yeah. I just don’t understand how someone with that much attitude can be so good looking. She’s got so many people wrapped under her little fingers. I’m sure a lot of the reason she does is because she flaunts her body. I thought karma existed, but apparently it doesn’t because her attitude does not match up with her looks.”_

 

 

And now you sort of wish you hadn’t said anything about it at all. Honestly, you can’t help that she’s drop dead gorgeous! Seriously, how is her hair always on point? You saw her earlier in the library, reading once again, and you couldn’t help but feel jealous with how much she rocked those leather pants. And the way she concentrates when she’s reading. Like she’s actually trying to soak up every bit of information that the pages have to offer her. That’s definitely what you were focusing on. Not the way her eyebrows furrowed, nor how adorable you found it.

 

“Oh, come on, is it really so bad to say that you the hots for her? You definitely wouldn’t be the first one,” LaF brings you out of your thoughts.

 

“I don’t just like someone for their looks,” you respond. “Personality comes first.”

 

LaF rolls their eyes. “Sure. But you’ll still go to the party? To hang out with people who’s personalities do happen to match their looks?”

 

“If you promise to stop talking about Carmilla, I’ll do whatever you want,” you say, because you aren’t exactly sure what your feeling is about her and let’s face it— you’re the girl about feelings.

 

LaF’s happiness increases as they say, “Well I’ve been needing someone to help out with a minor experiment of mine—”

 

“Except anything that has to do with science,” you interrupt, and they laugh.

 

* * * *

You really shouldn’t have let yourself come to this party. The minute you saw it was actually in a private home, owned by one of the Zeta’s, you should have insisted that LaF take you home. In one room of the house everyone is practically having sex on the dance floor, another is the make-out room (for those that haven’t escalated to going upstairs), and in a third there’s beer pong and other drinking games. You’ve taken residence on a couch in what you’ve deemed the reject room— everyone’s on their phone or looking depressed and sipping their drinks, and obviously their night is going as well as yours. You can just feel the disappointment.

 

LaF and Perry are here somewhere (you really hope it isn’t upstairs), and you stand up, determined to find them. After a few seconds of searching you pick up no their auras and know that they’re in the dancing room.

 

You’re going through the kitchen towards the make out room, both of which you have to go through to get to the dance room, when you glance through the sliding glass door and see that someone is sitting outside on the deck facing away from the door. A little investigation proves that you know exactly who it is, even though her jacket hood is up. LaF wasn’t wrong when she said she’d be at the party.

 

Now that you think about it, you really don’t like being in the stuffy house. Plus, it’s not like you really wanted to head into a room full of drunk people attempting to dance. You try to silently open the sliding glass door and step out into the cool night air.

 

“Look, if you’re just going to puke or make out of something please go back inside,” Carmilla grumbles, not turning around.

 

“What if I promise to do neither?” you ask, and you consider actually going back inside, because you remembered how rude Carmilla tends to be and you’re not sure if the fresh air is worth it.

 

“Will promised me that he’d lock the door. Obviously that didn’t happen,” Carmilla slowly turns around, and you see that she has a beer in her hand. “Oh. It’s you, cupcake. Didn’t realize.” She seemed genuine in the statement. You slowly walk towards her and sit down, her eyes following you the whole way. They’re not judgmental or hateful, they simply follow you. You look down at the grass and see that there are at least four other empty beer bottles. Not that you couldn’t tell that she was drunk from the smell of alcohol radiating off of her, but still.

 

“You doing okay?” you ask, glancing up at her. She narrows her eyes at you.

 

“You the alcohol police?” she asks, and you’re extremely surprised that her words aren’t slurred. You shake your head.

 

“No. I just didn’t see you as the type to come to parties and get drunk in the back yard alone.”

 

Carmilla snorts. “I suppose you're right.” She takes a long drink from the bottle, finishing it off. She then pulls another bottle from the box sitting on the other side of her feet in the grass (almost falling over) and attempt to open it.

 

“Maybe you shouldn’t—”

 

“Don’t tell me what to do,” Carmilla growls, angrily throwing the bottle to the ground. It breaks and sprays everywhere, and while you were able to move your feet out of the way Carmilla didn’t seem to have the care or ability to move her legs, causing her black ripped jeans to be soaked in cheap beer. “Fucking great,” she murmurs, wiping at herself hopelessly.

 

“If you stay here I can go get some paper towels,” you say, though you know at this point it won’t really help at all.

 

“Don’t worry about it,” she sighs, giving up. “It was my fault, anyways.” She goes to grab another bottle, and this time she does hand it back to you. You twist the top off and take a drink yourself. “That wasn’t for you, cutie, but I suppose you can keep it.”

 

“Carmilla, why exactly are you here in the backyard getting drunk alone? That seems a little broody, even for you.”

 

She laughs, and this time there isn’t much malice behind it. That was a pretty laugh, you think, before shaking the thought out of your head. LaF is influencing you too much. “I, uh, put up the Google Doc,” Carmilla says slowly. “Bet you didn’t expect that.”

 

The way that she says it makes you sad. “I wasn’t sure what to expect,” you respond honestly.

 

She snorts again. “Never expect much. I’ll just disappoint you.”

 

This certainly got sad extremely fast. Not that it was ever particularly happy to begin with, but still. She’s staring out, but you know that she’s somewhere else. You reach out and put her hand in yours, and she stiffens, suddenly pulled from her thoughts, and sluggishly pulls her hand away. You don’t really stop her.

 

Although it wasn’t your intent, you did get a clear picture of what she was thinking. It’s always easier (and almost always against your wishes) to get a visual when someone’s walls are down.

 

_The light is blinding. You keep your eyes shut, but even behind your eyelids it’s almost too much to handle. You can’t move, you can never move when it’s like this, you know you deserve it. You’re burning up now, the room is getting hotter, and you still can’t see anything._

 

 

_“Darling, if you weren’t such a disappointment you wouldn’t have to go through this. It’s your own fault, remember that.”_

 

 

_It’s your own fault. It’s always your own fault._

 

 

Carmilla’s staring at you, and you’re pretty sure she said something but you didn’t hear her. What the hell did you just see? A vision of her drunken mind?

 

“Sorry, what?” you ask.

 

“Haven’t you ever heard of personal space, cutie?” she glares at you. “I don’t like to be touched without permission.”

 

You nod. “I’m sorry. I was just trying to be comforting.”

 

“Yeah, well, don’t,” she’s trying to put her walls up. Now that you’ve come into contact with her a couple of times, if you search for it you can get a sense of her emotions. After what you just saw, you’d give almost anything for some clarification.

 

“You can talk to me, you know,” you say, and god, that sounded cheesy. “I know we barely know each other but I’m pretty good at the emotions thing so.”

 

Carmilla stares at you, trying to figure you out. She can tell something is different, but because of her deluded mind she can’t really figure out what. You decide to tell her, because if she finds out that you read her emotions from somewhere else you just know that she’ll be extremely pissed. And honestly, you’d rather have drunk Carmilla yelling at you because you doubt she’ll remember it in the morning.

 

“Carmilla, I just want to let you know that I’m a power,” you say slowly, so you know she’ll understand you. “I’m an empath, and if I make contact with someone I can have empathic clairaudience, too.”

 

“What? You can read my emotions?”

 

You nod slowly.

 

Anger soon takes over, and she’s trying to stand up but fails and stumbles out into the grass before falling down.

 

“Wait! Carmilla!” you stand up and rush to her.

 

“Don’t you dare touch me!” she says, scrambling to face you, and you pick up that she’s scared of you. It’s not the normal type of scared that people normally get when they find out that you can read emotions. You’re used to people being afraid to be around you.

 

Carmilla, however, is _terrified_ of you knowing her emotions.

 

“I’m not going to to hurt you,” you keep your hands up so she can see that you’re not going to touch her without permission. “I just want to help.”

 

She shakes her head and looks down, grabbing at the air frantically with both hands. You’re about to question what she’s doing when suddenly her hands grab at a dark substance and then there’s a shadow silhouette covering Carmilla, fitting her form exactly. The head glances up at you.

 

A few seconds later, the silhouette explodes, leaving you stunned and looking at an empty yard in front of you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here are the powers we know so far:
> 
> Laura- empathy, empathy clairaudience, telekinetic blast
> 
> Perry- health manipulation, force field generation
> 
> LaF- organic manipulation
> 
> Danny- fire/electricity manipulation
> 
> Kirsch- shapeshifting, specifically animals
> 
> Carmilla- so she DOES have powers, but what the hell are they?
> 
> Will-???
> 
> Every single power that I use I refer to http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Superpower_Wiki .
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This took longer than expected. Sorry about that!
> 
> The day after the party. Will Carmilla show up to the project meeting with Laura after everything that's happened?

You’re pulled out of sleep with your phone buzzing. Once you finally find it underneath your pillow you see that Perry had texted you a picture of a passed out LaF in what has to be the most uncomfortable position on one of the couches in the common room on their floor.

 

At least you hadn't gotten that wasted last night, because you can just imagine what LaF is going to have to deal with when they wake up. Especially since they didn’t even make it to their room, apparently.

 

 _Good luck, Perry_ , you respond and slowly drag yourself out of bed, because you have to meet Carmilla in the library in a couple of hours. That is, if she even shows up. You have no idea what she thinks of you now that she knows that you’re a power. And she _was_ pretty drunk last night, before she teleported away from you.

 

Holy crapsticks. You still can’t get over that Carmilla is a power, and that somehow you didn’t see it. What is her power, exactly? It didn’t look like simple teleportation. The journalist inside of you really wants to know what her powers are, but how the hell are you going to ask her?

 

_Uh, hey, Carm, so you're a power too? That's so cool! What power do you have, exactly?_

 

You're pretty sure she'd murder you in about .5 seconds. Carmilla isn't exactly one to share anything about herself, which is part of the reason you think that no one knows that she's a power. In fact, no one knows where she lives or what she does outside of being annoying in class. 

 

You’re still thinking about it two hours later as you’re sitting on your laptop, refreshing your email in hopes of her letting you know that she’s on her way. After about fifteen minutes it’s apparent that you aren’t going to receive anything, so you check the Google Doc and start to plan out some slides that you could possibly use. An hour after the time that you two were supposed to meet, you find yourself checking your email again. Of course, nothing new. You follow through with an idea that you’d had on your mind for twenty minutes, and call Danny.

 

“Laura! What’s up? Everything okay?” Danny picks up on the fourth ring.

 

“Yeah! No one is dying or anything. I was just wondering if you had Carmilla’s number, because she’s an hour late and she was pretty drunk last night and—”

 

“Whoa, hold up. How do you know that she was drunk last night?” Oh, crap.

 

“Well LaF, Perry and I went to the Zeta party and she was there too. Listen, I’ll catch you up about everything later. Can you text me her number? I know you have it since you were her TA last semester.”

 

Danny sighs. “Yeah. Okay. Next time, invite me when you plan on crashing a Zeta party?”

 

You want to roll your eyes, but you know she’s just trying to be nice and so you respond, “Of course.” She hangs up and half a minute later you receive a text that contains Carmilla’s number.

 

You think about just letting it go and letting Carmilla skip this meeting, but the amount of schoolwork that you have to do within the next few weeks really convinces you otherwise. Whether you’d like to admit it or not, you really can’t do this project all on your own.

 

The first time you try Carmilla doesn’t pick up. You really try and stop yourself from getting frustrated, but you can’t help it. It’s not like you were asking her to hang out with you or anything, this is just to get an extremely important project done. You barely even had to talk. You try again, and you’re about to hang up when you hear the click of her answering. There’s a few seconds of silence before she talks.

 

“Will, I swear to God if you call me about Mother one more time—” Carmilla starts, and her voice sounds rough with sleep.

 

“I hate to break it to you, but I’m not Will,” you interrupt awkwardly.

 

“Then what the hell do you want?” she mumbles.

 

“I want you to show up to work on our project like you said you would,” you try and keep your voice calm, because you know that if you piss her off there becomes a zero percent chance that she’ll actually come.

 

“What..? Fuck,” she realizes, and you hear her sit up slowly.

 

“You’re over an hour late.”

 

“Creampuff—”

 

“Unless you’re literally dying, I need you to help me work on this,” you say before she can continue to try and guilt you into letting her out of this. To be fair, Carmilla sounds like she’s seriously hungover. You almost feel bad for her. Almost.

 

“This is ridiculous. Can’t we meet tomorrow?”

 

“I’m in the library, working on what is supposed to be our project,” you say, exasperated. “You’ve already ditched me once, Carmilla.”

 

You hear her groan in response. “Are you serious?”

 

“Dead serious, _cutie_. Better hurry up.”

 

“Laura—”

 

You hang up before she can convince you otherwise. Did she actually say your name? Doesn't matter, you really need her to get her well-sculpted ass over here and help you with this project.

 

Twenty minutes later, and she still hasn’t shown up. Great. You pissed Carmilla off, and now you’re not even sure if she’ll meet with you another time. You start to come up with a plan on how to do this project yourself when suddenly she’s sitting right in front of you.

 

“Don’t look so happy to see me, cupcake, or people will start to notice,” Carmilla smirks, but you know that she feels like complete crap. Along with the bags underneath her eyes and looking extremely pale, her body is tense, like she’s trying to block you out. You want to tell her that it doesn’t work that way, that what she does physically does nothing to block out your power, but you’d rather get some work done before the conversation goes to shit.

 

“Right,” you say, glancing back at your laptop and you try and ignore. “So I’ve already started trying to put some slides together with the information…”

 

You both work for about an hour and a half or so, and at that point you have about half of the slides that you need to complete a ten minute presentation.

 

“Do you think we need an entire slide about the court session or?” you ask, typing away, even though you know that you’re losing her.

 

“Whatever you want,” Carmilla mumbles, and you glance around your laptop screen to see that she’s lying with her head facedown on the table. This isn’t her usual sarcastic response, and you raise your eyebrows at her even though you know she can’t see it.

 

“Are you okay?” you ask. She senses that you’re staring at her and brings her head off of the table, and you’re pretty confident that she wants nothing more than to crawl back into bed and get rid of the huge headache that she has.

 

“Peachy,” she responds, and sits up slowly. You definitely don’t notice how perfect her hair still looks as she pushes her bangs out of her face. What you do notice, however, is that she has the same clothes on that she had on last night. Did she not teleport herself home from the yard? Or was she just so drunk and hungover that she didn’t bother changing clothes?

 

“We can finish this another time,” you say, shutting your laptop, because your thoughts have derailed once again and you guys honestly did more work than you had hoped to get done. Carmilla narrows her eyes at you, like you’re joking with her or something.

 

“Look,” you take a big breath, not sure exactly how to bring up what you’ve been thinking. “I don’t know how much you remember from last night but—”

 

“I remember everything,” she says bluntly, but is no longer making eye contact with you. You can feel her getting nervous again, which is unusual. She’s not used to being nervous.

 

“I just want you to know that I’m not going to abuse you or anything,” you say. You’ve never really been good at assuring people about your power, because, honestly, you have no idea what it’s like to not be forthcoming with your emotions. You’ve always been an open book, and most of the time people can get the gist of what you’re feeling. Carmilla is the exact opposite. She doesn’t want anyone to know what she’s feeling. She’s really good at attempting to cover it up, but, well, you do have super powers after all.

 

“Not sure what you’re talking about, cutie,” Carmilla’s picking at her fingernails and is trying to look unaffected.

 

“I’m not sure what exactly you’re scared of, but I just want you to know that whatever happens, I’m not going to tell anyone about anything unless you want me to,” you want to reach over and grab her so that she’ll look at you, but you know the last time you tried to show any sign of affection she teleported away from you, so.

 

“And why would I be scared of you, Hollis?” she risks a glance at you for the first time.

 

“I’m not sure,” you shrug. “I can read emotions, I can’t always guess their sources.”

 

“Are we done here?” Carmilla asks coldly. She’s trying to put walls up, guarding against you, but she doesn’t really know how to with someone that can actually read emotions.

 

“You know a lot about me,” you say. “I would really like to know a bit about you.”

 

“You know too much about me already,” Carmilla shakes her head, slowly standing up. “And I have a mysterious reputation to maintain, creampuff.”

 

“Carmilla,” you say, stopping her from walking away. “I, uh….” She raises her eyebrows at you. You swallow and compose yourself before you continue. “I not only have empathy, but empathic clairaudience when I physically touch someone if they’re deep in thought,” you start slowly, “And when I tried to pull you from your thoughts last night, I, well—”

 

“You saw what I was thinking,” Carmilla finishes.

 

You nod. “I can’t help it. I really wish I didn’t have that power, but it’s basically like I’m in your head, thinking and seeing exactly what you are. Like a flashback.”

 

She slowly nods in response, and takes a deep breath to calm herself down. “Right. Well. I’m not even sure what I was thinking last night, because in case you hadn’t noticed, cupcake, I had quite a bit of alcohol. So whatever you saw was just some crazy dream that my drunken mind came up with.”

 

Carmilla is still nervous, and you still think she’s lying, but you let it go. She obviously isn’t one to open up, especially to you, whom she barely knows. You stand up and walk over to her so that there’s no way that she can avoid looking at you.

 

“Carmilla. I know you don’t really know me and I have no idea what is going on in your life, but you can trust me. I know that with my powers you think that I can use and abuse anybody I want, but I won’t. I never have taken advantage of my powers and I never will, even on someone like you who is an asshole to almost everyone most of the time. But with everything that’s going on with powers and non-powers, we might as well stick together, right?”

 

You can feel her fear lessen slightly and a smile ghosts her lips. “You did all of that just to get me to tell you my power, huh?”

 

You snort and shake your head. “Of course not. I already know your emotions, I’m not going to make you tell me anything you don’t want to. I just want you to know, I’m here if you need me, or whatever.”

 

Carmilla rolls her eyes, and she looks a bit better than she did a few minutes ago. “You don’t want to become anything that would resemble a friend with me.”

 

You frown. “Just because I called you an asshole doesn’t mean that I think you would make a terrible friend.”

 

She shakes her head. “Cupcake, if your powers tell you anything about me, it should be that you need to stay far away from me.” Before you can say anything else she turns around and walks out of the library.

 

This girl is sure going to give you a headache.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here are the powers we know so far:
> 
> Laura- empathy, empathy clairaudience, telekinetic blast
> 
> Perry- health manipulation, force field generation
> 
> LaF- organic manipulation
> 
> Danny- fire/electricity manipulation
> 
> Kirsch- shapeshifting, specifically animals
> 
> Carmilla- she's going to keep us in the dark for as long as possible about this
> 
> Will-???
> 
> Every single power that I use I refer to http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Superpower_Wiki .
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get Carmilla's point of view! A few things are sort of cleared up.... actually not really. Sorry guys, it'll all make sense in time.

“Carmilla, I just want to let you know that I’m a power… I’m an empath, and if I make contact with someone I can have empathic clairaudience, too.”

 

“What?” It takes your really clouded mind a moment to process what she’s saying. That means… “You can read my emotions?”

 

Laura nods slowly, confirming your now worst nightmare.

 

Fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK. You need to get out of here. The damn alcohol is making your body hard to control, but of course that’s what you wanted. You weren’t expecting Laura to pop up and be able to read your damn emotions. Before you know it, you’re on the ground.

 

 _Come on legs, fucking work,_ you think to yourself. This is a hell of a time to be drunk off your ass.

 

Laura says something, probably trying to get you to stop and try and listen to her. Suddenly she’s in front of you (how the fuck can she move that fast?), reaching towards you to attempt to help you up.

 

“Don’t you dare touch me touch me!” you scream, and you hate how terrified your voice sounds. You’re Carmilla fucking Karnstein. You don’t sound scared, let alone terrified. Ever. You hope that she needs physical contact to actually be feeling your emotions, but after you just practically screamed that at her, even non-powers could tell that you’re scared of her. Great.

 

“I’m not going to hurt you,” Laura says, while raising her hands to show that she won’t touch you. “I just want to help.”

 

You want to scream that she should stay as far away from you as she can if she wants to stay out of trouble. You look away because, yes, she’s too innocent and nice and she shouldn’t be anywhere near you and your problems. You can’t look at her anymore, because the last time that someone looked at you like that, they ended up dead because of you. That can’t happen again. For half a second you think about staying here and trying to work it out, but you’re wasted as fuck and you know that you’ll probably let something slip that you shouldn’t. You really need to get out of here.

 

You pull at the night air, the darkness around you, and because of the extreme amount of alcohol in your system it takes a few tries before your fingers actually grasp onto something. A stream of cuss words runs through your head as it takes a couple more seconds for the shadows to cover the rest of your body. You take one last glance at Laura, who’s just as shocked as you’d expect she’d be, before willing the shadows to take you away.

 

Your entire body feels like it’s going through a blender before you touch down. You’d been aiming for your apartment, but in your drunken haze you’d missed and ended up on the street. You think you’re a couple of blocks away? You stumble a down the street for a few steps before your stomach catches up with what you’ve just done and before you know it you’re losing it’s contents onto the sidewalk.

 

“Fuck,” you mutter, wiping your mouth, but you do feel a bit better. You don’t exactly want to leave your vomit in the middle of the sidewalk, so after checking to make sure that no one’s around you pull on the shadows that the building gives off from the streetlights and wipe it off. It’s not exactly as smooth as you want it to be, but hey, at least you didn’t leave it for some family to find tomorrow while going to church or something. God damnit, this night took a bad turn quicker than you thought possible.

 

The worst part? You still have to face Laura and work on the stupid history project with her. Time to test your evasions skills, it seems. There’s no way you can go back to your apartment and fall asleep after everything you’ve just found out. The small park right across the street from your apartment complex is one of your favorite places to go during the late night. You make your way there and sit down on a bench. 

 

You’re pissed off at yourself. How could you not see this whole thing with Laura coming? You’ve always been able to tell if someone is a power, because most people don’t exactly hide it.

 

Shit. As good as you are at covering up your emotions, you know you can’t hide from Laura. She already proved that to you tonight. You also know that Laura is a journalism student, and she probably won’t stay out of your business if she thinks there’s something wrong. And that’s how she’s going to get hurt. You could have prevented Laura from something way more dangerous than she could imagine, and you didn’t.

 

You had one job, Carmilla, and you failed.

 

You’re sitting at your favorite bench for all of about five minutes when you hear, “Well, Kitty, it seems you had a better time at that party than I did.”

 

“Seems so,” you mumble, looking up to see Will right in front of you.“I thought you were playing beer pong with your ‘bros’?”

 

Will sighs and sits next to you. “I overheard someone talking about how you just disappeared from the party. One of Kirsch’s other friends? Lauren or something?”

 

“Laura,” you mumble. “She’s my partner on Ackerman’s stupid project.”

 

He nods. “No one ever likes that old power’s projects anyways.”

 

You both sit there in silence before you continue, “So why aren’t you drunk? It’s Friday night?”

 

Will answers after a couple of seconds, “The guys are out in force tonight and—”

 

“Will!” you turn to him faster than you thought your body was capable of right now. “I thought I told you to stay out of it! You’re going to get yourself killed.”

 

“I can’t, Kitty,” he gives me a sad smile. “You know just how wrong it is, what Mother does.”

 

“Yes, and you know exactly what happens when I try to go against her,” you look down at your hands again. You haven’t cried about what you have gone through, what you _still_ go through, in such a long time, but it’s always difficult to meet Will in the eyes while talking about it. He puts his hand on your shoulder, and is probably the only person that you wouldn’t shrug off. You have to have at least one friend in this fucked up world, right? Who says it can’t be your brother.

 

“I can’t just sit by,” Will says. “It’s worse than it’s ever been, and of course I’m not blaming you for going against her with all that’s happened, but I can’t stay on the sidelines anymore. I just stopped by to make sure that you’re okay.” He wraps his arms around you and you lean into him, grateful that you have him. Will stands up and is about to teleport when you quickly (too fast, because your world spins for a few seconds) and grab his shoulder to stop him.

 

“Let me come with you,” you say.

 

“Kitty…” he trails off. “Normally I’d be ecstatic, but you’re drunk off your ass.”

 

You shake your head. “I know. But give me an hour and I’ll be good. I promise.”

 

Will smiles at you and nods. “Well, let’s get you a uniform, yeah?”

 

You shake your head at him again but this time you're smiling (a rare sight) and you both teleport to his place, where he hands you a green hoodie and pulls one on himself.

 

“Why do you have two green identical hoodies?” you ask, narrowing your eyes.

 

Will looks up at you and gives you a half smile. “I’ve been hoping you’d change your mind about fucking up Mother’s plans.”

 

You end up saving 3 powers from getting kidnapped by random mercenaries that your mother hired, so even though you didn’t get back to your apartment until nearly 1pm the next day, it was worth it. Somehow you had the energy to grab the shadows, and teleport yourself into your living room. You make it to the couch and pull your phone out of your pocket before you lose consciousness.

 

* * * *

It’s the next Monday and you’re making your way from your afternoon class back to your apartment. You’ve memorized the shadow patterns of the buildings throughout campus throughout the entire day, and only use the paths where you can stay away from the daylight.

 

It’s been a long time since you’ve been comfortable with the sunlight shining down on your skin.

 

You almost make it off campus when five guys in suits are walking towards you, the one with dark skin in the lead. Fuck.

 

“Uh, hey, Farley. Nice weather we’re having, right?” you try and joke, but he doesn’t even crack a smile.

 

“Your mother summons you to her office, Mrs. Karnstein,” he responds.

 

Fuck fuck fuck, fuck. You and Will covered up your tracks. No one saw your face. You didn’t think you’d get caught. You’d been so careful. Run! your mind screams, because you know if you go in you won’t make it out this time. Your body seems to be frozen in fear, however, and you allow the suits to grab you and start to walk you towards her office.

 

Your skin is tingling already, and you haven’t even made it into the damn room yet. This went well. This went so well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We learn more of Carmilla and Will's powers!
> 
> Here are the powers we know so far:
> 
> Laura- empathy, empathy clairaudience, telekinetic blast
> 
> Perry- health manipulation, force field generation
> 
> LaF- organic manipulation
> 
> Danny- fire/electricity manipulation
> 
> Kirsch- shapeshifting, specifically animals
> 
> Carmilla- shadow manipulation, shadow portal creation
> 
> Will-teleportation
> 
> Every single power that I use I refer to http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Superpower_Wiki .
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks!


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And we're back to L's point of view! More confusion, as always!

This week has really been kicking your butt. You spent the first half of your week stressing out and studying, and you ended up secluding yourself so much that you barely saw anyone else. So when you saw Danny in the cafeteria on Wednesday afternoon, you were pretty surprised to see her looking just as awful as you felt.

 

“How’s it going, Laura?” she asks, looking up from picking at her food and and smiling. You sit down and give her a smile back.

 

“These midterms are going to be the end of me.”

 

Danny chuckles, “It seems that way, but trust me, finals are way worse.”

 

“Thanks,” you groan, picking up your BLT and taking a bite. “You always know how to make a girl feel better.”

 

Both of you eat in silence for a couple of minutes before you continue, “So how are you doing?”

 

She shrugs. You know that she’s stressed; it’s radiating off of her. “There was, an uh, incident earlier this week and it kind of scared me and my whole family.” You raise your eyebrows.

 

“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to…”

 

The last thing you want to do is pry. You’ve already done enough of that with Carmilla and it backfired extremely. Danny shakes her head. “No, you should know. LaF and Perry know, and you’re also one of my closest friends, so.”

 

She takes a big breath before starting. “My younger sister is here visiting because she’s scouting colleges. You know that we live out in the country, and it was a huge move for me to go to University in the city rather than the small community college in a town close by or even staying home and just working on my family’s tree farm. My parents were, of course, extremely skeptical for the first couple years that I lived here, always checking in on me and trying to make sure that I stayed out of trouble, even though I visited most holidays.”

 

You nod. “Overprotective dad, here. I get exactly what you mean.”

 

“It was finally around last year (so five years after I had been living here), that they finally let up and we only talk when something major comes up or we just really want to talk. Anyways, this year my little sister is graduating and she decided that she also wanted to check out Silas because she knows that I’ve had a lot of fun here and she doesn’t really think tree farming will be in her future. She was staying with me in the Summer Society house this last Saturday and Sunday, and I was keeping a good eye on her, making sure that if she leaves the house that she was accompanied by someone. I’m surprised my parents didn’t have her on a constant Skype call or something.

 

“Anyways, Saturday night one of my fellow society sisters called me, drunk out of her mind, and asked if I could come get her. I agreed and told my sister, Hayden, to stay put and to not answer the door for anyone. I was gone for a whole twenty minutes, and by the time I got back, she was gone.

 

“I figured she went to the cafeteria to get something to eat or something similar, but she didn’t answer her phone when I called her. I asked some of the sisters that were in the common room watching a movie, and one of them said that a package had come for me and that Hayden had went out to the road in the back of the house that runs around the edge of campus to get it for me. That had been ten minutes before.

 

“I was sprinting out the back door when suddenly Hayden’s running into me, freaked out. I asked her what had happened and she shook her head and asked to head inside before explaining. Something was definitely wrong, and I had assumed the worst as soon as I realized she had left the room, but just seeing her so… she looked like she had seen a ghost, Laura.

 

“We were up in my room, drinking coffee, wrapped up in blankets, when my sister finally decided to talk. She told me that she had been tasered and grabbed by three guys who used those electrified batons to momentarily paralyze her and put some weird gloves on her hands. They were just put her in the car and were driving away from campus when suddenly someone dressed in a green hoodie appeared right in front of the car, forcing the kidnappers to stop. The kidnappers got out to confront the person and the green hood person pummeled the crap out of the guys! All of them were knocked out and Hayden had gotten the use of her legs back, and when the person with the green hood tried to enter the car she became afraid that they would attack her too and pushed herself farther across the back seat.

 

“They tried to comfort her and told her that they were there to help her get back to safety. Hayden was, needless to say, really freaked out still, and she refused to go anywhere. The figure said that they knew me and that they would never hurt someone that was related to me. My sister asked for proof and they said that I'm a TA and that I'm also a power. She asked to name all of my powers, and they responded that I have fire _and_ electricity powers. 

 

“Hayden went with the green hoodie, because hardly anyone knows that I have electricity powers as well as fire powers. The figure drove her back the few blocks the car had gone and walked with her most of the way through campus. My sister asked how the figure knew me, but they told her that it was best not to get involved. When the Summer Society house was in sight, they stopped, and told her to go on into the house. Hayden shared many thanks, and the person just shrugged and muttered that ‘Xena owed them one’.

 

“She went home on Sunday after touring the campus, and I thought she’d be too freaked out to come to Silas after what happened, but Hayden shrugged and told me that she was saved and that she can’t go on living her life as if she was kidnapped. She was obviously going to be careful from then on, but other than my favorite neckless that she was borrowing from me that was ripped off during the struggle, nothing else was lost.”

 

“That’s insane, Danny,” you say, because honestly nothing else is coming to mind. Other than the fact that you were also saved from the green hoodie, of course. You didn’t really want to bring it up, though, because you knew that would only add to Danny’s stress.

 

She nods, “I know. I can’t shake the feeling that they were meant to take me. My younger sister isn’t a power, after all. They probably just assumed that she was me and took her before she could explain anything. And—”

 

“Don’t you dare say what you’re about to say,” you interrupt, because you knew exactly where that was going. And it’s all my fault because if they hadn’t been after me they wouldn’t have taken her.

 

Danny sighs. “I know you’re right, Laura, it’s just…”

 

You reach over and grab her hand comfortingly. She smiles up at you, feeling a bit better. “I don't know why you might try and hide that you have electricity powers, but it's a good thing that you did."

 

She chuckles. “I never really hid it, I just don't use it a lot. I suppose someone that's close enough to me could figure it out without me explicitly saying anything about it.” She narrows her eyes at me. “Do you have some idea who it is in the green hoodie, Hollis?”

 

“I really don’t,” you shake your head. “But I would imagine by doing some digging of your own you could figure it out. Whoever it was sounded like a friend.”

 

Danny nods. “Well, we both know it isn’t LaF or Perry. I have to go to class, but I’ll see you tomorrow for arena day, yeah? Maybe I'll actually electrocute some people.”

 

“Not lethally, of course,” you smile, as she gets up and packs her bag before bidding you farewell and heading to class. 

 

You use this time alone to collect your thoughts, while finishing your lunch. 

 

  1. Whoever is in the green hood knows Danny. Meaning that whoever it is must be a student at Silas.
  2. Man this is stressing you out, and you already have school projects and exams to think about 
  3. Speaking of projects, Carmilla's been off the radar since you saw her on Saturday. She hasn’t even been responding through phone or email, and the Google Drive hadn’t been updated since you worked on it.
  4. ….You may or may not be worried about Carmilla, because you know that even if she was avoiding you physically she usually answered her phone.
  5. Yeah no seriously you’re worried about Carmilla, and not simply because you’re working on a project with her, but also because people have been kidnapping powers left and right, and there’s only one person in a green hood that can’t possibly save everyone, and every single time you’ve been on campus you’ve been unable to pick up her aura.



 

You figure at this point it's time to leave, because worrying about these kinds of thoughts won't do you any good, and you can get a nap in if you go home and maybe study a bit. You walk out of the cafeteria, search for her aura one more time, and you almost think you’re imagining it when you feel it. According to you she’s in the library, and you turn your legs around and head that way. You’re not planning on confronting her on disappearing or anything, you both just really need to work on your project that’s due in two weeks.

 

Once inside, you pick up that she’s sitting in one of the back couches, hidden throughout the stacks. Carmilla is, in fact, sitting on a couch in one of the book aisle's, reading when you approach her. You try and shuffle your feet so that she’ll hear you and turn around, but she seems too lost in her thoughts and doesn’t look up.

 

“What are you reading?” you ask, and she quickly turns around, trying to hide a wince.

 

“Oh, uh, hey,” she attempts to smile. You’re pretty sure she’s in physical pain. You can’t tell exactly what, because pain is a feeling not an emotion, although when you’re in pain a lot of times your emotional reading gets jumbled because you’re affected by it so much. On top of that, she has dark circles under her eyes and she seems paler than normal, making her look a bit sick. Her hair is still on point, though.

 

“You okay?” you ask.

 

“Of course. I know I disappeared, there was a uh, family emergency.”

 

You’re still suspicious but you don’t want to push it. You’re just relieved that she isn’t kidnapped (it actually surprised you how much you were worried about her, with how much of an asshole she tends to be). “Right. Well I hope whatever is going on gets better. But in the mean time, is there a day you can meet this week so we can continue our project? Hopefully without one of us being hungover?”

 

Carmilla smirks. “Sure. Name a time and a place, cutie.”

 

“How about tomorrow night?” you ask.

 

She nods. “You’ll probably have to remind me, you know. I’m a very busy girl.”

 

You roll your eyes. “You are so full of it.”

 

“There are worse things to be.”

 

“Hey! Kitty!” a voice from behind us calls out. I turn around to see Will walking down the aisle way.

 

“Looks like I’m popular today,” Carmilla smirks.

 

“I’m glad to see that you’re okay— I mean, that you’re back on campus,” Will smiles.“Just thought I’d come to remind you that mother says that there shouldn’t be any more repeats of this weekend.” Carmilla’s fear spikes, and you glance back at her, but her face gives away nothing.

 

“Right. Thanks Will. I’ll see you later, yeah?”

 

Will nods and awkwardly makes his way back where he came from. You can tell that she does love him, a lot more than she’d probably ever admit.

 

“Well, I should probably could get going,” Carmilla slowly stands up, and her reading gets jumbled again, meaning she’s probably in an extreme amount of pain. You quickly step forward and grab her arm to help steady her, and in doing so her sleeve rides up before she can pull away.

 

“Look but don’t touch, creampuff,” she grunts out, but you’re still staring at her forearm. She realizes and pulls her sleeve down before grabbing her bag.

 

All of the skin on her arm is burnt. Like, _really_ burnt. Probably a second degree, at the very least. You want to look away because it looks really bad, with her skin red and peeling, but you can’t find the strength to.

 

“Carmilla—” you start, but she raises her arm slowly and silences you.

 

“I’m really bad with matches,” she can’t look at you, and the fear is now back in full force. “Don’t worry about it.”

 

“I can help you heal that,” you plea with her, willing her to not ignore this and walk away. 

 

“Didn’t know you had healing powers too, buttercup,” Carmilla says as she slowly starts down the aisle toward the front of the library. “But no thanks, I’ll be fine.”

 

“It’s not— Carmilla wait!” you follow her, and it wasn’t too difficult to catch up.

 

“I thought you weren’t going to abuse your power,” she bites out, angry. 

 

"Perry has healing powers, I know you’re in a lot of pain and she can fix that,” you plead. “Even someone who can’t read emotions can tell.”

 

Carmilla rolls her eyes. “ _I said no_. Stay away from me.”

 

The anger in her voice alone makes you stop. This isn’t supposed to be a battle, so you surrender before it could start. You watch as she walks out the door and avoids walking through the sun.

 

Besides, you’re supposed to be hating Carmilla, right?

 

No. You care about her. She’s not like everyone thinks she is, and despite all that’s gone on between you two, you think that maybe you guys could actually be friends. You walk to the parking lot to meet LaF thinking of ways to show Carmilla that you aren’t a threat, that you genuinely care about her, because you can tell that she hasn't had anybody in her life like that except Will, and you know that she needs someone like you. 

 

You just hope you don't harm her before you can help her. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here are the powers we know so far:
> 
> Laura- empathy, empathy clairaudience, telekinetic blast
> 
> Perry- health manipulation, force field generation
> 
> LaF- organic manipulation
> 
> Danny- fire/electricity manipulation
> 
> Kirsch- shapeshifting, specifically animals
> 
> Carmilla- shadow manipulation, shadow portal creation
> 
> Will-teleportation
> 
> Every single power that I use I refer to http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Superpower_Wiki .
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks!


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get both point of views this chapter! First Laura, and then Carmilla. I think next chapter things will really start to pick up, so thanks for hanging in there guys!
> 
> Edit: there is some mention of the burns more extensively in this chapter, so if you're uncomfortable with that please don't read!

_Come on, come on, come on!_ you internally scream, and at that moment you release your built up telekinetic energy, and the box twenty feet away from you is whisked off the heavy metal table, which is also forced back a couple of inches.

 

“Great work, Laura!” Perry smiles at you. You give her a smile back, because it felt great to unleash that energy, like it was taking a load off of your body.

 

“Thanks for helping me out, Perry,” you respond.

 

“No problem! Would you like to rest, or shall we continue?”

 

You shake your head, “I’m good to continue.”

 

“Wonderful. You’ve been doing really good with a relatively small object, like the box, but I’m thinking now we can move onto something bigger.”

 

Suddenly LaF is sliding on their back on ground in front of you, clearly having been thrown backwards and out of the half of the room where them, Danny, and Kirsch were sparring again. They look up at you sheepishly before standing up and dusting themselves off (the scorch marks on their clothes make you think it was Danny who threw them over here). You hear the roar of a tiger and the whoosh of new fireballs being produced over on the botanical side of the room, where they carry on as if LaFontaine was never there.

 

“How’s it going, guys?” they ask, as Perry rushes to them to make sure that they weren’t injured.

 

“We were just about to move onto a bigger sized object,” Perry says, done searching LaF. “She’s really improving quickly.”

 

“As in, a human sized object?” LaF raises their eyebrows, and you know exactly what they’re about to suggest.

 

Apparently Perry does too, because she crosses her arms and says in a motherly tone, “LaFontaine! Laura will not use you as a target! You can get seriously hurt!”

 

“Oh yeah, it’s not like we have a healer here that could patch me right up or anything, right Perr?” LaF faces them. “If L’s going to use this to protect herself, she needs to try it on an actual person, not small boxes on tables.”

 

Realization washes over Perry, and you know she is totally against it, but she nods her head anyways. “Fine. But the moment that you actually get hurt you are no longer allowed to do this.”

 

“I’m not so sure I’m comfortable with doing this…” you speak up for the first time, because honestly you thought that Perry would put a stop to it.

 

“It’ll be fine, Laura. Besides, humans can move around, so the likelihood of you having a stationary target is next to none. You need to practice on something moving!” LaF says. 

 

“There are human-like dummies that you can program to move in this room!” you point out, but LaF is already stepping towards you, pulling some vines all the way from the other side of the room and raise them up threateningly.

 

“They can’t motivate you like this, though, can they?” they smirk, “you’re most likely going to be under pressure when you have to perform a blast, and shooting dummies all day won’t give you that.”

 

You can’t exactly argue with that, but you also don’t want to hurt LaF. They’re your friend, and you can’t really see yourself attacking them, even if it’s just for play. You back away, but they keep stepping towards you, adrenaline pumping through their system. One of the vines is now close to your head, and LaF’s left hand moves swiftly in a slapping motion, and the vine taps you.

 

“Come on! Throw me on my ass!” they taunt.

 

The energy has been building up, but you’ve been refusing to let go of it.

 

“LaFontaine! Don’t do that to her!” Perry says, but she backs away a tiny bit just in case something were to happen.

 

“Ah, lighten up Perr, I know that L will tell me as soon as it’s not okay,” LaF raises their eyebrows at you. You roll your eyes in response, and are slapped in the face lightly with the vine again.

 

“Seriously, LaF?”

 

They chuckle. “Fight back, then! You know you want to! Think of some God awful scenario if you have to.”

 

“LaF, I—” you’re interrupted when suddenly the vines are wrapping around your shins, preventing you from being able to move. You’ve never been “attacked” while in the arena before like this. Normally you just tag along because you enjoy being around other powers. This is the only time, other than when you were almost taken and were saved by the person green hoodie, that someone has physically attacked you. So even though you don’t want to, your body involuntarily releases the telekinetic energy.

 

LaF’s vines instantly let go of you as they’re blasted back five feet, landing flat on their back. Perry is instantly at their side, but they shoo her off and sit up.

 

“Not bad, L, not bad,” they give you a thumbs up, and although you’d felt bad initially, upon seeing that they weren’t hurt, you smile back.

 

* * * *

Laura asks you to meet her at her apartment for the study session. Honestly, you probably shouldn’t have said you were fine with meeting with her in the first place, especially since she saw your burns and probably wants to ask questions.

 

You would bring your hand up to the bridge of your nose in annoyance, but you know better. Unfortunately, you’ve been in the same position more times than you’d like to admit. You know that moving your arms anywhere above a 45 degree angle will cause you immense pain. Anything under that you can handle by this point, since it’s been 3 days. You were in the middle of typing a response that maybe you should just wait to meet when you receive another text.

 

Laura (7:24): _i hope it’s not too much trouble. i just don’t want to travel alone once it gets dark becuz, ya know, there are kidnappers on the loose_

 

 

You (7:25): _so you expect me to risk my neck out there, cupcake?_

 

 

Laura (7:25): _of course not!! i was gonna give you my address and you'd teleport in or whatever you do_

 

 

Why were you considering saying yes? Karnstein, you know that she’s asking you to go to her apartment so that she can interrogate you without having to worry about other people listening in. In the last week, you’ve definitely been thinking way too much about the tiny journalism student, and you’re not sure how much you actually like it. Something about how detached she is from everything that you have been involved in makes you think, maybe, just maybe, it would be nice to know someone who isn’t neck deep in the shit you’re in. Even though you were almost passed out the last time you had a study session, it was nice to get away from everything. You can’t believe you think that about a stupid history project.

 

And, if you were honest, Laura wasn’t bad on the eyes.

 

You (7:28): _whatever, cutie._

 

 

A minute later you have her address, and you sigh because now you have to pull yourself off your couch, which took you so long to get semi-comfortable on in the first place. Once you’re standing, the shadows from the couch (you only have one lamp on in the entire room) quickly slither over to your bag by the door and surround it, bringing it back to your slightly outstretched hand. You’re also thankful that you never took your shoes off once you got back to your apartment, because that was a real bitch to do this morning before class.

 

You know you probably shouldn’t have gone back to class this early, but because of all of the worried texts and emails you’d received from Laura since you missed class on Tuesday afternoon, you didn’t want her to dig any deeper to find you and end up in danger. Mother would not tolerate some classmate attempting to find you after…

 

You can’t pull your bag onto your shoulder, so you just rest it in the crook of your wrist as you glance at your phone one last time to make sure you have the correct address in mind. Your arms stay by your side as your fingers once again grasp at the shadows around you before they take shape around your body and you will yourself to connect with the shadows in Laura’s apartment.

 

Somehow you didn’t fuck it up majorly and you ended up right in the middle of her living room. Two feet to the left and you would’ve ended up on her cluttered coffee table.

 

Laura’s in the small kitchen, and you look up to see that she's already staring at you. As soon as you make eye contact she looks away, clearly flustered, and grabs two glasses of water before walking the five feet into the living room. 

 

"I’m glad you didn’t poof into the wrong place,” she smiles, motioning to sit at either the couch or the papasan chair before setting the water on the table.

 

“That would have been awkward to explain to your neighbors,” you smirk, making your way to the couch and slowly lowering yourself onto it, your body internally screaming. The entire time you can feel Laura’s eyes on you, and you refuse to make eye contact as you keep your face emotionless. You know that won’t really make a difference, but it’s habit.

 

“Thanks for coming,” Laura says as she takes a seat in the papasan chair and grabs her laptop from the coffee table. You're thankful she bites her tongue about the other topic. “Shall we continue with the trail of Ethan Schadler?”

 

You find yourself wanting to smile, but you refrain. It's all so normal. “It would be my honor, cutie.”

 

She nods in response before naming off what you guys had so far on the slide. You both work for almost an hour, you on your phone looking at the information you’d gathered and Laura on her laptop.

 

The entire time, you can tell Laura is observing you and trying to see if you're okay. A couple of times you thought that she was going to start firing off questions about your burns to break the silence, but she doesn’t. Other than sitting up straight and your torso making the least amount of contact on the couch as physically possible, you know that you don’t look out of the ordinary. Normally you wouldn’t even do that, but you figure that Laura already knows something is up and you’d rather not go through unnecessary pain.

 

You have almost your entire presentation complete when you reach forward and grab the glass of water on the table. Not only does Laura see a bit of your forearms because your long sleeve rode up, but she also leaned forwards and handed the glass for you before you could grab it off the table. Not that you aren’t grateful, as leaning over sucks ass, but something inside of you snapped and you were officially annoyed.

 

“I could have reached it myself,” you grumble, taking a sip.

 

“I’m sorry, I just thought—” 

 

"That I’m too injured to reach over and get myself water?”

 

“Carmilla, I know that those burns can’t be painless,” Laura frowns, concerned. “Unless you have a really good makeup artist and it's fake, because, wow.”

 

“Please don’t go into this,” you look down at your glass of water, the anger suddenly gone and all you wanted to do was get away from Laura’s stare.

 

“I want to help you,” she says, and your heart is now hammering in your chest.

 

 _Fuck_ , you shouldn’t have gotten yourself into this situation. Because, for some reason, you know she isn’t lying. She’s Laura Hollis, too good for you and too good to be mixed up with anything you’ve been involved in. And you really, really want to tell her. But you can’t.

 

“Can we get back to the stupid project?” you ask, hating that your voice is wavering.

 

“Carmilla please—”

 

“Laura,” you say her name and look up at her, hoping to get through to her that you can’t tell her.

 

“Carm,” she reaches over and puts her hand on your knee. “I don’t have to know how you got them. I mean, if you want to, I'll be willing to listen of course, but really I just want to help you heal them.”

 

“Uh, sure,” you say to end her rambling. You weren’t entirely focused on what she’d been saying, after she called you by the shortened name and by your skin tingling slightly on where her hand was resting.

 

Laura smiles comfortingly and before you even realized what you agreed to she calls out, “Perry!” The ginger with the extremely curly hair timidly walks out from the hallway with her hands in her pockets.

 

“Uhm, hi. I’m Lola Perry, or just Perry, and Laura said you had some burns that needed healing?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only Laura could get Perry to secretly hide in her bedroom until Carmilla agreed to be healed. That's not creepy at all, man. 
> 
>  
> 
> Here are the powers we know so far:
> 
> Laura- empathy, empathy clairaudience, telekinetic blast
> 
> Perry- health manipulation, force field generation
> 
> LaF- organic manipulation
> 
> Danny- fire/electricity manipulation
> 
> Kirsch- shapeshifting, specifically animals
> 
> Carmilla- shadow manipulation, shadow portal creation
> 
> Will-teleportation
> 
> Every single power that I use I refer to http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Superpower_Wiki .
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks!


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Once again this chapter switches POV's. I'm not sure if I'm going to consistently change the point of view from now on, as that wasn't my original plan but I'm kinda digging it.
> 
> As promised, things do pick up starting with this chapter. 
> 
> TRIGGER WARNING: this one does have torture, specifically torture with fire.

“So, in order for me to know what exactly to heal, I have to know where exactly the burns are and how bad they are,” Gingerlock says, stepping closer to me and bringing her hands together nervously. 

 

Oh shit. Oh, no, you _did not_ sign up for that. There’s no way Laura or anyone else can know how much of your body is truly covered in these burns. Because then there would be no way that Laura would let it go. 

 

As much as you really wanted to get healed, you didn’t want other people involved. 

 

“It’s just until my elbow,” you say, and although your voice doesn’t waver and your face doesn’t give anything away, you can still feel Laura eyeing you suspiciously. You refuse to look at her as you stand up, put your phone in your bag, and slowly walk around the coffee table to right in front of Perry. 

 

“I would like to see them, because I need to know the extent in order to fully heal them,” she smiles, holding her hands out with her palms up to signal that you were supposed to lay your hands on hers. You breathe in deeply before slowly rolling up your sleeves of your sweatshirt to just below your elbows. It hurts pretty bad, but at this point you’re good at hiding your pain and Laura’s already studying your face, so you keep it as straight as you can. 

 

Your arms don’t look any better than they did yesterday. They’re still a deep red (better than looking bright red and moist, like they were on Tuesday), the top layer of skin already peeling off. It’s every point of skin from your elbow to the joint of your wrist. There’s a hard line between burnt and non-burnt skin, and you hope Laura doesn’t notice. 

 

If you hadn’t seen it a lot of times before,  you’d probably be almost sick to your stomach with how bad it looked. Speaking of looking green, Laura looked like she was about to blow chunks herself. 

 

“You okay, cupcake?” you ask as Perry continues to observe the wounds without touching them. 

 

“Uh, yeah, of course,” Laura says, standing up and moving closer to you. “Shouldn’t I be the one asking you that right now? Those look extremely painful! How are you walking around? I’d be in the hospital.” 

 

You shrug and can’t hold back a wince. “I told you I’m bad with matches,” you try and brush it off, but she’s back to her concerned face. 

 

“Well, these are definitely second degree burns,” Perry says, and you’re thankful because you’re pretty sure the next thing out of Laura’s mouth was going to a question about how this happened. “Now, I have to judge the exact damage that it’s done, which means that unfortunately I have to touch it and you have to tell me exactly what you feel.” 

 

“I’m assuming it’s probably going to be pain,” you mutter. Perry looks at you apologetically before bringing her pointer finger gently down onto the inside of your arm and moving it down the length. 

 

“Well?” she asks, lifting her hand away from your arm. “How badly did it hurt on a scale of 1 to 10?” 

 

“Probably a six or a seven,” you respond and suddenly find that your feet are very interesting. You figured Laura would question it because the burns look worse than that pain level, but thankfully she keeps her mouth shut. 

 

Perry nods and guides you to sit back down on the couch. She kneels in front of you and once again takes your hands in hers. “It’s going to feel weird,” she smiles. “And you might feel a bit tired afterwards.” 

 

You want to shrug but you know that’s a terrible idea, so you give a slight nod back. You’re also not sure when Laura ended up sitting next to you on your left, but you surprisingly feel comforted by her presence. When you glance over to her she’s smiling at you, and you give her a half smile back. 

 

“Ready?” Perry asks, bringing your attention back to her. 

 

“Whenever you’re good, go for it Doc,” you respond, and Perry closes her eyes and takes a deep breath in. 

 

She wasn’t wrong when she said it feels weird. It was like someone was scraping at your skin, but it wasn’t painful, more like it tingles (you refuse to use the word tickles to describe it). You and Laura both watch in awe as the deep red and burnt skin around your wrists starts to become darker until it turns brown, and finally morphs back to your normal skin color. There are burn scars, but those aren’t from Perry’s healing. They don’t need to know that, though. Perry continues until your entire arm is healed up until the elbow. You think she’s is going to let go, but she doesn’t, and you feel the scraping sensation up in your bicep and you know that she’s healing that as well. Perry doesn’t stop there, and when she moves onto the _really_ bad burns on your back you know that she hesitates because her fingers tighten around yours. 

 

Because it’s stronger, the healing does cause your back to itch like crazy. You slightly arch your back and refrain the urge to scratch at your back, because you know as soon as you let go of Perry they would be painful yet again. 

 

Laura looks at you curiously, and you refuse to meet her eyes. You hope that she thinks that all of this is just healing your forearms, and then pray that Perry doesn’t rat you out. 

 

As soon as it’s over, your entire body feels drained of energy. You start to curl in on yourself like you do when you’re exhausted. 

 

“All done,” Perry smiles,  before letting go of you and standing up. 

 

“Uh, thanks,” you say. 

 

“Of course,” she nods before grabbing her bag by the door. “You should probably get some rest. That much healing at once will take a lot of you. I need to get going, but if there’s any other issues, you’ll call me, right Laura?” 

 

Laura nods. “Thank you so much, Perry.” 

 

As soon as Perry is out the door you stand up slowly, and can’t hold back a yawn. You could probably fall asleep standing, at this point. 

 

Laura notices. “What are you doing?” 

 

“I’m, ah, going home?” Seriously? You couldn’t get through _three words_ without yawning?

 

“That doesn’t seem very safe,” Laura frowns, standing up as you groggily grab your bag. 

 

“No, it’s okay,” you wave her off, but your eyes are involuntarily drooping and Laura quickly grabs you before guiding you back to the couch and sitting down with you. “I really should get home.” 

 

“Shhh,” Laura’s rubbing circles on your back, and _fuck_ that feels amazing. You collapse into her and she lays you down so that your head is on her lap still making patterns on your back, and although you try you can’t stop your eyes from closing. “You’re okay. Just go to sleep.” 

 

You hum in response and can’t help doing as she says.  

 

* * * * 

It takes approximately five minutes for Carmilla’s breathing to even out. If someone would have told yourself two weeks ago that Carmilla Karnstein would basically fall asleep on you in your own apartment, you would have responded that they were crazy. 

 

Both of you stay in the same positions for about twenty minutes before Carmilla moves and curls further into herself. You can’t stop yourself from smiling because she looks so much softer, with all of her walls down. 

 

You then frown as you realize that Camilla is trying to make herself as small as possible. She’s seems so confident and fearless when she’s awake, so why does she unconsciously do that? It’s like she’s trying to protect herself, make her mass as small as possible so it’s harder to hit, and people only protect themselves when their afraid, right? 

 

Does it have something to do with her dream? 

 

As if to answer your question, Carmilla’s face scrunches up in pain. (You don’t take note of how, even through the discomfort, she still looks beautiful). 

 

You don’t really want to violate her privacy, but if Carmilla is having a nightmare you definitely would rather wake her up than have her suffer. So you take your hand and you make contact with the rough skin of her forearm, rubbing it soothingly. 

 

_Your eyelids are closed to protect your eyes from the light. The warmth is making your skin tingle uncomfortably, as if it knows what's coming. It's too fucking hot in this room already. You try to move your stretched out arms, but you know it’s pointless; they’re tied up. You hear footsteps and you shift your weight (at least your feet aren’t also tied up. You’ve learned by now that even if you could run you wouldn’t get very far) to a defensive stance, because you know this is going to hurt like a bitch._

 

_“My sparkling child, we find ourselves here yet again,” the same woman that you heard last time says. She’s behind you. Too close behind you._

 

_“Seems so,” you mutter._

 

_“Are you ever going to learn?” the intimidating voice rings out, in front of you now, and you hear the familiar_ whoosh _and you can’t stop your heart from skipping a beat. “You know I hate do to this to you, Carmilla, but you leave me with no choice.”_

 

_“Well, you’d think since this doesn’t work you’d try something else,” you spit out, and open your eyes slowly. The light is almost blinding, but you can make out a figure of the woman with that god forsaken propane lighter._

 

_She clicks her mouth disappointedly as she steps up to you. You have to look up at her 6 foot frame, even though you know you won’t be able to make out any of her features because of the light being behind her. “My, my, my, Carmilla. Such a mouth on you. I’d hope you would have learned manners by now.”_

 

_You want to roll your eyes but you know it would be more painful for your eyes, so you don’t. “Why don’t you teach them to me?”_

 

_The figure smiles, you just know it. “My dear, that’s the plan.” She brings up the torch and you watch it as she brings it closer to your right arm._

 

_You close your eyes and the pain hits all at once, and you try and bite your tongue to refrain from making any noise, but after about thirty seconds of the flame basically making contact with various parts of your arm you can’t help it. You open your eyes and watch as your skin melts and bubbles under the flame, and you ball your gloved hands. That's Mother's rule: never torch where people can see._

 

_Your screams seem to satisfy the figure, as she backs off for a bit and you hang your head and open your eyes, exhausted. It’s then that you see that you only have pants on, and no shirt or bra._

 

_“Do you have anything to say to that, my dear? Any more petty comments?”_

 

_“Only that I don’t regret breaking the rule,” you pant, raising your head slowly to only be met with blinding light. You close your eyes instantly and try to look away, but you know there’s no escape._

 

_“My glittering girl,” the horrid voice whispers in your ear. “You will learn the rules. You will learn not to break them. Especially not interfere in my affairs.”_

 

_Before you can respond she brings the torch to your back, and you instantly arch it trying to escape, screaming profanities._

 

_“I’m sorry!” you break. “Fuck I’m so sorry!”_

 

_Instantly the torch is gone, and you collapse, the only thing holding you up is the bounds on your wrists. Your right arm and entire back scream in protest, but you don't have the energy to hold yourself up any longer._

 

_The bitch is in front of you again, because suddenly you’re staring at her feet. “Anything else?”_

 

_“I, uh…It won’t happen again,” you get out between your sobs. “Mother, I’m sorry, it won’t happen again.”_

 

_“Of course it won’t,” she sneers. “And this is to make sure.”_

 

_God damnit your left arm is_ literally _on fucking fire._

 

_You scream but it does nothing to deter her. You knew there was no getting out of it. This is why you never disobey her._

 

_It only gets you burned._

 

You gasp as you’re brought back to reality. You breathe in and out, trying to calm yourself down, and you look down to see that Carmilla is still asleep. 

 

What the hell did you just see? 

 

Before you can spend any more time thinking about it, you hear buzzing. You slowly remove Carmilla’s head from your lap and stand up. She shuffles a bit, but never wakes up. 

 

The buzzing is coming from Carmilla’s bag, and you pick it up and shift through it to find her phone. 

 

You can’t find it, so you gently turn it over and dump all of the contents out over the floor. You go to pick up the phone from the ground when you spot something familiar lying on top of it. 

 

No. 

 

_It can’t be_. 

 

Danny’s necklace. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was a rough one, specifically for Carmilla. 
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't know much about burns, so if it's inaccurate, I'm sorry! 
> 
>  
> 
> Here are the powers we know so far:
> 
> Laura- empathy, empathy clairaudience, telekinetic blast
> 
> Perry- health manipulation, force field generation
> 
> LaF- organic manipulation
> 
> Danny- fire/electricity manipulation
> 
> Kirsch- shapeshifting, specifically animals
> 
> Carmilla- shadow manipulation, shadow portal creation
> 
> Will-teleportation
> 
> Every single power that I use I refer to http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Superpower_Wiki .
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks!


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laura once again tries to process what the heck is going on and Carmilla gets some very well needed rest. 
> 
> Oh, and I also think I'm going to keep rolling with the whole POV changing periodically thing.

You’re not sure what to do. The necklace has been in your hand for the last five minutes and you’ve been staring at it, your mind going to the worst scenarios.

 

Carmilla is involved with the kidnappings? You can’t wrap your mind around it.  You mean, yeah, she’s an asshole, but you never got the vengeful vibe from her, and you know you’re never really wrong about people.

 

Also, Carmilla _is_ a power. Why would she be involved in kidnapping them?

 

Your cell phone vibrating in your pocket interrupts your thoughts. The caller ID tells you it’s LaFontaine. You frown before standing up, moving quietly to your bedroom, and answer the call.

 

“What’s up, LaF?”you answer, trying to keep your voice as quiet as possible without whispering.

 

“Hey, Laura, is everything okay there? Perry seems kind of concerned,”LaFontaine says, and you can tell that they’re frowning.

 

“What kind of concerned?” you ask, because there’s no way Perry could know about the bracelet.

 

“Well, I’d rather let her explain, but…” there’s shuffling, probably from LaF offering Perry the phone, then a sigh and more shuffling, before they speak up again: “Perr’s not sure how much she should share, as it probably violates Carmilla’s privacy.”

 

You sit down on your bed, now concerned. “LaF, if Perry thinks that Carmilla’s in trouble…”

 

LaF sighs again. “Yeah. I know. That’s why I called you. Laura, Perry healed more than just Carmilla’s arms. She had been badly burned all over her upper arms and back, too.”

 

Wait, what? You knew Carmilla had been covering up most of the extreme discomfort she was feeling; you didn’t really think she could possibly cover up _that much_ pain. That’s more than half of her upper body! “That’s why it took an extreme amount of time to heal her? I thought it was just because the burns were deep, I never thought…” 

 

“Yeah,” LaF responds. “And the thing is, L, she’s been burned that badly before. Those scars that were there, what you saw after Perry healed her; they weren’t from this time around. When Perr heals you, she restores you to what your body was like before you were injured. Meaning, her skin is seriously scarred from having to heal on its own. And from how bad they are, Perr’s pretty sure that she’s been burned many other times.”

 

You close your eyes, praying that what your brain’s putting together isn’t true. Carmilla had _told_ you that it had been a dream of her drunken mind. A dream that you had the misfortune of coming across both times that you went all empathic clairaudience on her. Meaning that it probably wasn’t part of her fucked up imagination; it was a fucked up, real life nightmare.

 

“You okay?” LaF’s voice resonates in your ear, pulling you from your thoughts.

 

“Yeah. Thanks, LaF. Tell Perry that she did the right thing by telling me, even if Carmilla might be pissed at her for it,” you say, hoping that your voice sounds at least relatively normal.

 

“All I’m saying is you better make sure that broodypants doesn’t end up murdering one of us because we told you that information. Also, because the student insurance only covers major injuries, not deaths.”

 

You roll your eyes at their attempted joke. “Carm wouldn’t even murder a bunny rabbit.”

 

“Yeah, because they’re cute. I’m not that cute. I would definitely make the top of the list before a bunny rabbit would, L. And—wait, did you just call her _Carm_?”

 

“I, uh, gotta go,” you whisper, and hear them chuckle before you end the call.

 

You set your phone on your bed and lean forward to put your head in your hands. _Deep breaths, Laura. You_ _’_ _re fine. Everything_ _’_ _s good._

 

 

Except that your entire view of Carmilla has changed so drastically in the last few minutes, that you’re ninety percent sure she has to be some sort of shape shifter to mask everything.

 

The big question is how to go about confronting Carmilla about all of this? You definitely didn’t plan to get this involved in her life, and you know for sure that she probably also didn’t want you this involved, but after everything that’s changed, you’re not sure that you could just walk away from it all.

 

You’re there for her, and you need her to know that. You also don’t want her to think that you pity her and only want to help her because she’s in a really shitty situation. Granted, it’s a situation that you can’t seem to wrap your mind around and confuses the hell out of you, but still. Carmilla is so much more than you’d pegged her out to be, and you keep coming back to the thought that you want to be friends.

 

Or, _you brace yourself for this next thought,_ maybe you more than friends? You have no idea, this girl is such a mystery.

 

You have a feeling that your history project might not get finished in time, for your presentation in two weeks, if this keeps up.

 

God dammit! And you thought midterms were hard.

 

You slowly get up and head back into the living room; there you find Carmilla still asleep, muscles tense and fear radiating off of her. You may not be in her dream this time, but it’s pretty obvious she’s still having a nightmare.

 

Suddenly you find yourself in front of her, kneeling, and you place your hand on her exposed arm. You concentrate on her emotions, trying to know every ounce of what she’s feeling, because you want to make the fear and terror go away.

 

So you do.

 

To be honest, you weren’t sure if it would work, because you’ve only tried it a couple of other times. If you have a strong enough emotional bond with someone, you can change their emotions. You think the official name is “emotional manipulation”, but that has such a bad, fighting connotation to it that you refuse to use it when describing your ability.

 

You let relaxation and peace infiltrate her mind and body, overtaking the frightening nightmare. Seconds later Carmilla’s frame softens and her muscles loosen up.

 

You move yourself away from the couch and go to grab a blanket from the papasan chair. Once you drape it over her, Carmilla actually _hums contentedly_ (she would totally kill you if you called it a purr) before she pulls the blanket to cover the bottom portion of her face and burrowing further into the couch.

 

That’s when you realize that no matter what Carmilla has gone through, no matter what she says when she wakes up, you are going to refuse to believe that she’s a bad person.

 

The problem is, you’re probably going to have to convince Carmilla of that as well.

 

* * * *

You’re not exactly sure when you got a blanket, but you’re grateful for it. You’ve always liked to be covered when you sleep, blocking any sort of light from reaching your skin.

 

Also, whatever pillow Laura got for you, it’s the most comfortable pillow you’ve ever slept on.

 

Before opening your eyes and officially pulling yourself back into the real world, you pull the blanket completely over your head and stretch your muscles.

 

That’s when your pillow moves slightly, and your eyes snap open to reveal that it is not, in fact, a pillow.

 

It’s Laura.

 

You’re standing up in a flash, blanket still half wrapped around you like a cocoon (you’re really good at making sure no pure light makes its way to you, even while you’re unconscious).

 

“Shit, buttercup, I’m sorry—” you start, but she waves you off, before standing up and moving closer to you.

 

“It’s okay,” Laura smiles comfortingly, and boy does it work.

 

“Yeah, uh, thanks. Tell Perry thanks again. I should probably get going,” you say, and find that your bag isn’t on the ground where it used to be.

 

“Your bag is right here,” Laura says, walking over to the entrance, to the hallway, that presumably leads to her bedroom. It’s lying on the ground next to the TV stand.

 

“Thanks,” you say, as she hands it to you. She doesn’t let go of the bag, however, and instead places her other hand on top of yours. You glance up at her, curious.

 

“Carmilla…” she smiles nervously. She breaks eye contract for a couple of seconds and motions her head for us to sit back on the couch.

 

Fuck. You have no idea what’s going on, but you just know it isn’t good.

 

“When you were asleep your phone rang in your bag, and I went to get it so that I could shut it off, but I also found something else,” Laura starts, and by the end of the sentence your heart is in your throat and you feel like you’re going to throw up. 

 

She noticed your nervousness. Of course she noticed. That’s her fucking power, isn’t it?

 

“Carm, I’m hoping you’re about to say that you found Danny’s necklace, while you were walking through campus or something, because I refuse to believe that you’re involved with the kidnappings.” She places her hand on your knee, and you know it isn’t because she’s looking to read your emotions, it’s because she is genuinely concerned.

 

Fuck, she can’t be involved in this. You raise your hand and rub your face nervously.

 

“Listen, Laura, you really don’t want to know,” your voice barely above a whisper. “This is dangerous and way out of your control and—”

 

“Please,” Laura grabs your hand that’s closest to her, “Carmilla I’m already involved. I was one of the powers that was almost taken and I _know_ that you wouldn’t do anything like that.”

 

Something inside of you broke when Laura’s voice cracked in that last sentence. You weren’t even aware that there was anything left in you that could be broken.

 

“Someone in a green hood saved you?” you whisper, refusing to make eye contact.

 

“Yes!” Laura pauses, and you look up to watch as something in her brain clicks and realization dawns over her. “Wait. You know about the person in the green hood saving powers from being kidnapped? And you have the neckless…Whoa, you’re the green hood, aren't you?”

 

You can’t bring yourself to respond to that, glancing back down before Laura squeezes your hand and squeals. _Squeals._ God, you’re hopeless.

 

“I knew you couldn’t be a part of the people kidnapping powers! There’s so much more to you than people give you credit for, Carmilla Karnstein!” Laura’s ecstatic, but you can’t help the lump that forms in your throat.

 

Because it’s not true. You aren’t the green hood, not really. That’s Will. He’s the one that’s brave, strong, and badass enough to do the right thing. You can’t just tag along and do one good deed and expect to get keys to the pearly gates.

 

No, you’ll be burned alive long before you even reach the stairway to heaven.

 

“What’s wrong?” Laura squeezes your hand again, concerned. “What am I not understanding?”

 

“Laura, I…” you trail off, because you don’t want to finish the sentence. You don’t want to let her down, just like you have everyone else you’ve even come remotely close to.

 

“Look, I know you think that we’re barely friends, if that, but you can trust me,” she says, before giving you a lopsided smile, and seriously? When did you actually start to develop feelings for the tiny journalism student?

 

“You’ll only get hurt,” you shake your head, but she persists.

 

“I’m here for you.”

 

“Are you sure?” you ask.

 

“Carm, I’m not going anywhere,” and she’s totally serious. You’ve never had anyone say that to you and actually mean it except Will. Laura Hollis is way too good to you.

 

You sigh, purse your lips, and once again glance down and away from Laura's understanding eyes. You then compose yourself because you are Carmilla fucking Karnstein and you don’t get emotional.

 

“Well then buckle up, creampuff, because this is going to be a long night…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As of this chapter forward I'm glad to say that I have a beta! Thanks Lunae_3972_Lecem! 
> 
>  
> 
> We add another power to Laura's plate!
> 
> Here are the powers we know so far:
> 
> Laura- empathy/empathy clairaudience, emotional manipulation, telekinetic blast
> 
> Perry- health manipulation, force field generation
> 
> LaF- organic manipulation
> 
> Danny- fire/electricity manipulation
> 
> Kirsch- shapeshifting, specifically animals
> 
> Carmilla- shadow manipulation, shadow portal creation
> 
> Will-teleportation
> 
> Every single power that I use I refer to http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Superpower_Wiki .
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks!


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Sorry this took so long, I just started working on Tarzan: The Musical for a company near my house and so I don't have as much time as I used to. Hopefully I can keep updates to within a week, though!
> 
> Anyways, this chapter we get some answers! All Carmilla's POV. It is a bit longer than normal, so that's good, right? (also, warning, there are many long paragraphs in a row, which I know can get annoying, but Carmilla had to explain most of her life story, alright?).

As much as you don’t want to admit it, Laura has some power over you, a power you weren’t aware she had until now.

 

Come _on_ , Karnstein. How she managed to find out everything she has, is still somewhat of a mystery to you. People normally stay away from you, because, well, people think you’re an asshole.

 

You have to be one, though. Because whenever anyone gets close to you, mother swoops in and takes them away from you. It’s only happened once, but after all that happened, you swore that you wouldn’t let her get to anyone else. No one else deserves to get hurt on your behalf, let alone _die_.

 

Seriously though, why can Laura see right through your foolproof walls that you’ve worked so hard to put up, to protect people like her from getting hurt?

 

Well, you suppose the fact that her powers, which basically allow her to crumble your walls right at their foundations, might have something to do with it.

 

Still, you were nowhere near prepared for her to actually _care_ about what happened to you. As soon as you saw that she had gone behind your back, to try and heal you, yes, you were angry. But more than that, you were scared.

 

Because as much as Laura annoys you, she’s somehow found her way past all of your walls.  You’ve found yourself starting to care about what happens to her, which is the sole reason why you wanted her to stay away from you.

 

Guess that didn’t really go as planned, ever since you ended up succumbing to her will and actually showed up for those study sessions.

 

Beside the point, but Laura wasn’t too tough on the eyes. You could’ve gotten many girls, just like her, to come home with you to have a bit of fun, but you’ve never really felt an attraction to anyone else before. Also, beside the point, but you have questionable scars covering nearly half of your body, and those are the kind of scars you really don’t want to talk about with people, so.

 

You don’t like to think about what could have happened between you and Ell if your mother hadn’t stepped in. It just causes you too much misery, to acknowledge that you could have possibly been in one of the only healthy relationships your pathetic life could have.

 

You really don’t like to think about your past at all, to be honest.

 

The frantic footsteps from the living room remind you, however (you took refuge in the bathroom with a promise you’d tell Laura everything as soon as you composed yourself), that you’re going to have to dig up the past and lay it all out.

 

And you can only hope that Laura runs for the hills. As much as that would hurt you, to see your only potential friend leaving you, she’ll be safer that way.

 

You look at yourself in the mirror, and man, you didn’t think you’d looked _that_ bad. Dark circles, messy hair, and covered in a thin layer of sweat. You really need a shower, but you doubt Laura would let you stall that long.

 

Instinctively you reach your left hand up underneath your shirt, to the rough skin of your back and apply some pressure. You breathe a sigh of relief at the fact that you can actually move your arm like that, painlessly, let alone the fact that when you touch your back it doesn’t hurt.

 

At this point you’re pretty sure it’s unusual that you can even feel anything at all along your arms and back. Generally, you can’t feel anything unless someone squeezes your arm. But, you know people don’t ever have physical contact with you, except to try getting your attention to tell you how much of a jerk you are.

 

You splash some cold water on your face, take a few deep breaths, before stepping out of the bathroom and heading into the living room.

 

Laura was indeed pacing, but she tries to brush it off as if she was just making an extra long route to the couch. She sits down and smiles warmly at you, but you can tell that she’s pretty worried. You reach your right hand over across your stomach to your left elbow and take hold, and _wow_ you haven’t been this nervous in such a long time.

 

Laura notices that you’re extremely uncomfortable, and motions for you to take a seat. You head to the couch and sit to her right. You can’t stop your right leg from twitching nervously. She patiently waits for you to start talking.

 

“So, cupcake, anything specific you want to know?” you ask.

 

“Well, for starters, why are you saving us powers from being kidnapped?” Laura’s eyes light up, and this is one of those times that you can tell she’s definitely a journalism student. “Not that I’m not grateful, of course, I mean, you saved me.”

 

Now you’re confused. “What?”

 

Laura furrows her eyebrows (you definitely don’t notice how adorable it is), and explains, “A week ago. I was walking home from the store and these two guys basically jumped me. I thought I was dead or worse, but then you show up and kick their asses. You don’t remember? I mean, we had just met and everything but—”

 

“Breathe, buttercup,” you interrupt. She exaggerates, taking a huge breath, and it makes you feel less nervous. “And, I’m not the one that saved you.”

 

“What?”

 

This time, you’re the one to take a deep breath. “My brother, Will? He’s the one that’s been saving people. He’s gone out almost every night, not that I’m very happy about it. It’s dangerous and stupid, obviously. This past weekend I went with him to keep him safe. There were more kidnappings than we thought, so we split up and I ended up, uh, saving Xena’s sister along with a few others. Not a big deal.”

 

“Not a big deal? Carm, that’s a huge deal! You and your bother are real-life superheroes!”

 

“Oh god,” you groan, sinking your head into your hands. “Never say that again.”

 

You lift your head to see that she’s smiling at you, and it makes you smile back at her, before rolling your eyes.

 

Laura’s smile lessens as she asks, “But how do you know who the, uh, targets are?  I mean, from what Danny told me, and from my experience, it doesn’t seem to be the same people attempting to take the powers every night.”

 

Your stomach clenches. You’d hope that you could avoid that question, but it seems like Laura’s journalism major is once again showing. “Uh…”

 

Perfect. The one time you should’ve had an answer, and now you got nothing. Probably because your mind is so used to come up with as many excuses as possible to avoid questions like this that now that you don’t have to, it’s at a loss.

 

Laura places a hand on your knee and starts to rub circles with her thumb. “It’s okay, take your time.”

 

“The kidnappings aren’t just done by one person, like you guessed. People, with questionable morals from all around the city, jumped at the chance for money when a call went out that someone hired people to kidnap powers. As an advantage, they were even given those electric batons. A few weeks ago, Will managed to hack into their network, where they send out coordinates and powers’ names. With full access on his phone, he gets the exact location and time of the next kidnapping.

 

“You know the person giving out the calls, don’t you?” Laura asks quietly. She can tell she isn't judging you, not yet, and that makes you feel a bit guilty for not wanting to continue explaining. 

 

Fuck. _Fuck._ You look away, there’s no way you can make eye contact with her on this. Somehow you push yourself to continue to give Laura the answers she’s looking for.

 

“Yes. My mother—that is, the woman that adopted me when I was little—is responsible for hiring mercenaries all around this God damned city to kidnap powers nearly every night.” _Breathe, Karnstein, breathe._

 

 

Laura’s looking at you, but it’s not with disgust, like you were expecting. It’s with concern and curiosity, not the hardness that you’re used to when you’re talking to someone.

 

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asks. No, you really don’t. But Laura’s already knee deep in this shit, so you might as well let her know.

 

“My mother adopted me when I was around three or four. I don’t remember who my birth parents were, or anything from before her, really. Will isn’t related to me by blood, but he’s always been in my life. We always stuck together, even when we moved around a lot, because mother didn’t have the temper to work at one school for long periods of time.”

 

“It was weird; we developed our powers around the same time. I was a late bloomer, I guess, Will was 6 and I was 8. We were playing out in the yard when it happened; suddenly he wasn’t in front of me anymore, but behind me. He laughed and looked so pleased with himself, finally his big sister couldn’t catch him while playing tag. He got stronger, too; accidentally flung me across the yard when it was his turn to tag me. It’s a wonder I didn’t get seriously injured. Somehow mother knew because that night, at dinner, she questioned him, and he told her, with pride, how he could move from one place to another with only the will of his mind. She wasn’t pleased in the slightest. Later that night I overheard her lecturing him on the rules of using his powers and how he should refrain from using them as often as he could.  He snuck into my bedroom that night; I had to comfort him as he cried himself to sleep. Suddenly he wasn’t so happy about being a power anymore.”

 

“A few months later and my powers started to show as well. For me, it happened at school, while a girl was bullying me for reading, instead of playing with the other kids. I stood up and curled my hand into a fist, ready to punch the shit out of her, when she backed away from me, scared. I looked down and saw that a shadow, from the tree I had been sitting under, was forming what could only be considered as a blade out of the end of my fist.”

 

“I was terrified, to say the least. I knew how much mother lectured Will about hiding his powers, and knew how he would get locked in a dark closet, for hours on end, whenever he slipped up. I could only hope the girl wouldn’t go and tell her teacher, because that would, of course, reach my mother, who at the time, was the assistant principal. But what use is hoping? When I got home from school that day, I spent seven hours in the closet.”

 

“The closet never frightened me, and I was never lonely because I could play with the darkness, manipulate it into figures only I could see. Night vision comes with my powers, I guess. Mother realized the closet wasn’t a suitable punishment and threatened something much worse if I didn’t behave properly.”

 

“I didn’t use my powers properly for years. Every couple months—or whenever I couldn’t hold it in anymore—I would sneak out at night and play with the shadows or darkness, but that was it.

 

“We moved around, never really staying at one school for more than a semester. Eventually, we settled down in a really nice house (mother’s parents had died, leaving her with a small fortune), and a private high school where mother had gotten the principal position. Will and I drifted apart a bit, mostly because we were in different grades, and we didn’t have the same lunch break. One day he came home so excited, and he told me he’d made a new friend, another power. I knew mother wasn’t home, but I was still afraid she could somehow hear us, even though she was still at working.

 

“We went for a walk, and he went on and on about his new friend, and about how he used his powers all the time. He told me how his friend, Kirsch, could help him control and define his power more; Will just needed to practice more. I told him it wasn’t a good idea, how practicing his power in secret wasn’t going to work out, especially since mother was the principal. He responded that unless I told mother, there was no way she was going to find out.”

 

You take a deep breath, before you continue, “Will told me I should come too, hang out with Kirsch and a few other powers that went to our school. I had rolled my eyes at the idea, and asked what even gave him the impression that I wanted to hang out with a bunch of freshmen? Whereupon he told me that Kirsch hung out with powers from almost every grade. He continued to explain how they had a huge hangout of powers at Kirsch’s house every Friday.  They would watch movies, and go into the woods of his backyard and just duke it out, in good fun, with their powers. It was like one huge sleepover. At this point, mother basically ignored us, unless we caused trouble. So, when we said we were going to hang out, on Friday, with a bunch of school friends to study, she didn’t mind.”

 

“That’s where I met Ell. She was the only other person who was also in 11th grade. I’d seen her around school before—she definitely wasn’t hard to miss—but I’d never talked to her before. She had aerokinesis, the ability to control the air. We hung out together the entire night, and we became fast friends after that. By the end of the school year mother caught on to our little games, because one day she confronted me about Ell and our friendship. Apparently she knew Ell was a power, and she was concerned I would disobey her rule of not using my powers. I cracked, as lying to mother is nearly impossible for me, and needless to say, she wasn’t very happy. I couldn’t tell her about Will hanging out with Kirsch, because I knew he would get it worse than I. Instead I somehow (once again, lying to her is hard for me) managed to tell her I had no idea where Will went on Fridays, and that he wasn’t hanging out with Ell and me, and the others. She believed me, saving Will from her wrath. That was the last time I saw Ell and the first night that she, uh…she used the light room.” _Dammit, Karnstein, you promised you wouldn_ _’_ _t get choked up._

 

Laura is suddenly wrapped around you. You don’t want to give in, you’re stronger than this, but you do. You curl into her, and that’s when you realize that Laura isn’t running, even after all you’ve told her. (She smells so amazing, like vanilla and cupcakes).

 

_What the fuck, when did you get so soft?_

 

Only a few tears find their way onto Laura’s shirt, and you need to make sure to apologize for that, but right now, you’re thankful that you can mostly keep it together. After a bit, you pull away and she’s again looking at you with compassion and understanding. You find yourself once more thinking that Laura Hollis is too good to be around you.

 

“I, uh, sorry,” you wipe your tear streaks from your cheeks and she shakes her head.

 

“It’s okay, Carm,” Laura smiles. “I was serious when I said I was here for you.”

 

You nod, and pull your legs up on the couch so that you’re facing her, because if you got through that part of the story, you can get through anything.

 

“The cops said that she ran away, that it was just another teenager rebelling, but I know better. I’m not _exactly_ sure how, but mother killed Ell to make sure that I never got near her again. Around that point I realized mother wasn’t at all what I thought. I realized then that whenever we arrived at a school, the kids, who were powers, would disappear. I had always kept to my books, never noticing it before, but Ell’s disappearance seemed to open my eyes.”

 

“I confronted my mother about this, right after graduating high school, and she confessed to everything. She told me that powers were an abomination, that they were nothing but trouble. She explained how they, collaborating with her friend, Mr. Hitchcock, had been trying to find a cure for so long, and that he needed powers to try and perfect his serum. Will and I both knew Mr. Hitchcock; he’d been over to our house many times over the years. He had introduced himself as a scientist and my mother’s college friend. I’m not really sure why we never found it odd that he always seemed to around, even though we moved a lot; he was kind of like our cool uncle, or something like that.”

 

“All of this terrified me, so I ran away in hopes of leaving the entire thing behind. Despite everything, I still think of her as my mother, as family, and I couldn’t bring myself to try and alert the authorities. Besides, there is no proof to any of the crimes committed; she has covered her tracks well. So, I took the cowardly road out, applied to Silas three months later, and could only hope that Will followed me once he graduated high school.”

 

“So, everything was all good until you found out powers had mysteriously started to go missing, and you figured your mom was in town?” Laura asks, and God, don’t you wish that’s how it went. “So, we just go and confront her, and threaten to call the cops on her, right?

 

You shake your head. “No. Cupcake, my mother’s been here way longer than the powers have been missing. And did I stutter, while talking about my mother? She doesn’t do negotiations,” you hold your scarred arms out as proof. “She has too many connections. Besides, you’re already terrified of her.”

 

She does that scrunched up face she does when she get’s confused.

 

“My mother’s the dean.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! We lowkey added another power to Will's arsenal. Thanks, Carmilla!
> 
>  
> 
> Here are the powers we know so far:
> 
> Laura- empathy/empathy clairaudience, emotional manipulation, telekinetic blast
> 
> Perry- health manipulation, force field generation
> 
> LaF- organic manipulation
> 
> Danny- fire/electricity manipulation
> 
> Kirsch- shapeshifting, specifically animals
> 
> Carmilla- shadow manipulation, shadow portal creation
> 
> Will-teleportation, enhanced strength
> 
> Every single power that I use I refer to http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Superpower_Wiki .
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks!


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, since I'm not posting as fast as I'd like to, I'm going to try and make the chapters a bit longer than they used to be. 
> 
> The gang gets their first real interaction with Carmilla! From now on there's going to be more interaction with the others, rather than just Carmilla and Laura. 
> 
> All Laura's POV.

The conversation between you and Carmilla dies down a little after she repeatedly shuts down your different suggestions to somehow stop her foster mom. You decide to stop the conversation and tell her to go home and get some rest, because you can see (and feel) how stressed talking about this made her. She’d already had a really crazy day, and you don’t want to add more to it.

 

As much as you don’t want anyone else to get kidnapped, you know pissing Carmilla off will sever your only connection to try and stop it. Plus, you care about her and she doesn’t deserve to get grilled by you so soon after sharing her dark life story.

 

“Sorry for ruining the study date, cutie,” Carmilla says as she picks up her bag. Your heart clenches a bit at the fact that Carmilla thinks that any of this is her fault.

 

“For an apology to happen there has to be something I blame you for,” you respond, frowning. “And I don’t. If anything, I should apologize to you for going against your rudely laid out wishes.”

 

Carmilla shakes her head, a ghost of a smile on her lips. “Don’t worry about it. Tell Gingerlock thanks, and that I probably won’t murder her the next time I see her for telling you more than I wished.”

 

You roll your eyes, because you know Carmilla doesn’t have one ounce of anger in her right now. She’s still a little worried and scared, but it’s nothing compared to what it used to be.

 

“See you around, cupcake,” Carmilla winks, before shadows pull themselves from all around the room and engulf her. An instant later, she’s gone. The shadows explode and replace themselves exactly where they were before.

 

It astounds you, just like when she popped in. You’ve seen other powers that you’ve been amazed with, when you initially met them, but none have left you as awestruck as Carmilla’s.

 

No one in general has left you as awestruck as Carmilla has.

 

As you lie in bed that night and actually think about everything that’s happened, you realize many things.

 

The most important thing you realize, perhaps, is that you have feelings for Carmilla.

 

You also understand that there’s no way that she could possibly return the feelings. You definitely would have noticed if she did return them; love being one of the strongest emotions, one of the hardest to hide. And you’re pretty sure Carmilla has had little experience with it, making it an especially hard emotion for her to bury and keep away from you.

 

Sometime around 2am you fall asleep, your mind still processing all that has happened.

 

* * * *

You’re extremely thankful you don’t have any morning classes on Fridays, because you aren’t too sure whether you would be able to keep up with them otherwise. Plus, it’s been a while since you’ve had more than 5 collective hours of sleep at once, and you really needed the rest.

 

A buzzing startles you out of your half-asleep state, waking you completely up. The caller ID confirms its Perry.

 

“Hey Perr,” you say, trying to make sure you sound awake.

 

“Hi Laura. Is everything okay?” she asks, and, even through the phone, you can tell she’s nervous.

 

“Okay? Yes. Complicated? Also yes,” you sit up and stretch.

 

“What exactly does that mean?” LaF’s voice comes through. Gee, thanks for the warning that you were going to be put on speaker.

 

“Carmilla’s fine,” you say. “She says thanks. And that she probably won’t kill you.”

 

LaFontaine is the only one laughing. “Oh, come on, you know she’s joking.” A pause. “You are joking, right L?”

 

“Yes. She’s not going to do anything,” you shake your head, smiling. That’s when you glance over at the clock and see that it’s nearly noon. “Hey, you guys going to be in the Caf for lunch? It’ll be easier to explain in person.”

 

After agreeing to meet in a half hour, you all hang up. Then you text Danny and tell her that you’ll be in the Caf soon, if she wants to join as well.

 

While checking all of your notifications, you see you’ve gotten a blank email from Carmilla. The timestamp puts it at 5:33am.

 

“Holy crap,” you mutter, realizing it isn’t empty, but containing an attachment.

 

It's the complete slideshow presentation for your project. Carmilla had even written down, in the side notes, which slide each of you would be presenting.

 

You smile and shoot her a text, thanking her for completing it, and that you now owe her coffee for staying up so late to finish it.

 

Forty minutes later you meet LaF, Perry, Danny, and Kirsch (who Danny said she ran into on the way to the Caf).

 

“What’s going on, Laura?” Danny asks as soon as you sit down with your plate of food. “Is everything okay?”

 

You nod, trying to assuage her worry. “I wouldn’t exactly say that everything’s _okay_ , but no one’s hurt.”

 

“Anymore,” LaF adds.

 

“What does that mean?” Danny furrows her eyebrows, even more confused than she had been previously.

 

“It means that Carmilla was hurt, but Perry healed her,” you glare at LaF, who shrugs and goes back to shoveling food into their mouth.

 

“Carm-sexy—uh Carmilla—was hurt? How?” Kirsch joins the conversation.

 

You try to think about how to put the answer, without giving away more information than Carmilla would like. Actually, you know she wouldn’t like anything shared, but they could help her.

 

“She was stupid with a match,” you roll your eyes. “Ended up setting her forearms on fire. Perry healed her, though.”

 

Danny notices the exchange of looks between you, LaF and Perry. “Anything else you’d like to share?”

 

“Just tell us, L,” LaF says.

 

You chew your lip, thinking of how to go about this. “So, I’m not sure if you guys know this, but Carm’s a power…” you start, and you go on telling them Carmilla’s step mom is anti-power and that her and Will have been saving people from her. You leave out how exactly Carmilla got burned—you know that goes a bit too far. Besides, you’re pretty sure LaF and Perry pieced it together because their worry spiked right after you mentioned Carmilla’s mom punished her as a kid for being a power.

 

“Are you sure she isn’t just playing us and actually helps her mom?” Danny asks, uncertain. You know with the past interactions, that she’s had with Carmilla, are influencing her inability to fully believe the story.

 

“Danny, I know you’re doubtful that Carm could be anything but an asshole, but you’re going to have to trust me on this,” you say. “She doesn’t condone anything the Dean does. She’s just been hurt too much in the past to try and defy her. I think that if we all put our heads together, we can figure out a way to stop the Dean from kidnapping anyone else.”

 

“You do realize we aren’t the police, right?” Danny asks. “Why don’t we just call the cops on her?”

 

You shake your head. “Carmilla says the Dean has connections in the authorities, and she’d be out before we could say monkey waffle.”

 

“Why would we say monkey waffle?” Perry asks.

 

“Perr, why _wouldn_ _’_ _t_ we?” LaF smiles. “Wait, do you mean to tell me that Carmilla actually used the words ‘monkey waffle’?”

 

You shake your head, “She used a more… colorful term.” And then you and the others are laughing at the thought of Carmilla saying “monkey waffle”.

 

“So, say we theoretically go after the Dean. Are you suggesting we just, straight up knock down her door and attack her, like a fight sequence in a movie?” Danny asks.

 

“That would be totally awesome!” Kirsch says excitedly. “We could totally kick some ass!”

 

“Just because you and your Zeta bros are happily jumping into bar fights, doesn’t mean you have any idea what it’s like to fight anyone for real,” Danny scolds. “You know, unlike my Summer Society girls, who are properly trained in combat. Even a non-power could whip your butt.”

 

“Well, if there’s a pool full of cream corn somewhere, I wouldn’t mind…” Kirsch trails off, and everyone promptly hits him or throws a piece of food at him. “I was joking, jeez. I have total respect for Summer Psycho’s.”

 

Danny is about to continue arguing, but the look on Perry’s face silences her.

 

“Danny does have a point,” Perry continues. “We can’t just go in fighting. Not only is it dangerous, but from how Carmilla has talked about her, the Dean is powerful.”

 

“But we can’t just sit around and continue letting her make the calls to kidnap people!” you sigh.

 

“I know you want to help, Laura, but we need a plan before we go in fully armed. Did Carmilla tell you where the Dean is taking the powers?”

 

“Or if they’re even still alive?” LaF asks. They look around and see everyone’s shocked faces. “What? We all know it’s a possibility. She’s anti-power.”

 

“That means that she’s probably a non-power herself,” Danny theorizes.

 

“Carm never said if she was a power or not,” you respond.

 

“If you really want to go through with this, L, we have to get her on our side,” LaF says. “You have to admit that we’ll be lost without her.”

 

You nod, “You’re right. But that also means that you guys are all going to have to play nice and respect her. She’s not going to help us, if you guys are all jerks to her.”

 

“As long as we don’t plan a family bonding trip,” Danny sighs, and that gave you an idea. Danny must have noticed the change in your expression because she holds up her hand and says, “No. Hollis, I don’t know what you’re thinking, but I’m sure I’ll like it even less than going against the Dean alone.” 

 

Smiling widely and all eyes on you, you pull out your phone to check and see if Carmilla has replied your previous text. “Relax. She’s not as bad as you think she is.”

 

* * * *

You were expecting many things when you invited Carmilla to join you and the others at the Arena:

 

  1. She would at first refuse to go. (Check)
  2. She would then say yes, once you told her it was your way of thanking her for finishing the project. (Check)
  3. She would annoy the crap out of Danny and Perry on the way there. (Check)
  4. She would be eager to use her powers to fight Danny, or any of the others actually, as soon as you got into the arena. (Not check).



 

Carmilla isn’t nervous until you all got in line to get her the access card. Her banter with Danny continues to get more and more bitter, and eventually Danny notices the usual snark has got more bite to it than normal. Danny glances at you in frustration, and you can feel her curiosity at why exactly Carmilla seems harsher than usual (not that she’s asking you to explain or anything—your friends learned a long time ago that you won’t ever call out on someone’s emotion, unless they’re in danger).

 

“Oh, yeah, look to cupcake and ask for my emotions,” Carmilla folds her arms, and if you didn’t know exactly how nervous she was, you would have been confused by this sudden childish act. “Use her just like you’re using me.”

 

LaF, Perry, and Kirsch are all huddled ahead of you at the window buying Carmilla’s card. They are clearly trying to ignore the conversation, but when LaF looks back at you guys, you know their attempts failed.

 

“Whoa, okay, hey,” you step towards Carmilla, so that you’re in between them. “She wasn’t asking me anything. Everyone knows I don’t share someone’s _private_ emotions, unless they’re going to get hurt. And who says we’re using you?”

 

Carmilla rolls her eyes. “Whatever.”

 

At this point the others come back (albeit rather cautiously). Carmilla’s card is in Kirsch’s hand. As everyone had already changed into their usual training clothes, since you met at your apartment first and Carmilla had borrowed some of your clothes (you’re rather jealous at how they look better on her), you’re all ready to head to your usual practice room.

 

Once you get inside, everyone kind of freezes, observing what Carmilla will do. She just, stands there, staring off into the distance.

 

Her fear also spikes exponentially, and it takes you a couple of seconds to realize why. It’s a pure white room, something that Carmilla has come to associate with…

 

You head to the thermostat and flip the controls until the room switches to a forest with huge tree trunks blocking the artificial sun and throwing deep shadows. LaF takes a deep breath in, enjoying the smell of nature.

 

“Thanks, L,” LaF smiles. “And I didn’t even have to ask this time.”

 

You nod, letting them think it was for them, and it seems the awkward spell is broken. Kirsch shapeshifts into a rhino and gently head-butts LaF, who takes off sprinting to the other side of the room, branches bending to follow them.

 

Danny and Perry realize that you want to talk to Carmilla alone, and they begin to walk slowly away, Danny commenting about how Kirsch and LaF are both such children sometimes.

 

“I didn’t realize that—” you start, but Carmilla silences you.

 

“Don’t worry about it,” she says. “It’s not your fault.”

 

“You know it isn’t yours either, right?” you ask, stepping closer to her and putting your hand on her shoulder. She refused to wear anything but long sleeves, but you can still feel that her skin is rough through the thin polyester workout shirt.

 

“I’m not a charity case,” Carmilla pulls away, and wow, this is going south quickly.

 

“That’s not—I know you think we invited you here to get information about your mom, but that’s not true. We invited you here because this is what we do for fun, and we figured you would like to have some fun,” you say. “And, I mean, if you happened to become friends with all of us that would also be a bonus. Now, come on! Let loose a little! I’m sure you’ve been itching to attack Danny ever since you met her.”

 

“I’m good,” Carmilla says, and she’s not about to pull a book out of her bag, this is the Arena we’re talking abo—oh, apparently she is.

 

You follow her to a tree trunk. She’s about to sit down, when she glances back and sees you eyeing her. “Can I help you? Aren’t you going to go run around with bonehead over there?” She nods toward Kirsch, who’s currently a ram, charging at LaFontaine, bull style. 

 

“Is there any reason that you don’t want to have fun?” you ask.

 

“Who says that using your powers mindlessly is fun?” she deadpans, and although she’s trying to look apathetic you know she’s nervous. She’s scared to use her powers, something you never really noticed until after Carm told you about her childhood.

 

You suppose it's her mother’s fault for the uneasiness. Carmilla grew up thinking that having powers were an abomination; that she would only grow up to hurt people if she used them. She’d been trying to break free from the habits her mother harshly bestowed on her, but two years can’t undo everything.

 

“I guarantee you, it’ll make you feel better. It always makes powers’ feel better to use their powers,” you say and give her a cheesy smile. “Pleaaase. You know you wanna try to kick Danny’s butt.”

 

“Only if you’ll stop pestering me,” Carmilla sighs and stands up, dropping her bag at the base of the trunk.

 

LaF has really bad timing on their part, choosing this moment to run in front of us, Kirsch right hot on their heels in ram form. Carmilla lazily flicks her hand upwards, and the shadow, from the tree in front of them, pulls up tripping them. They had been running pretty fast, and they yell out as they skid about five feet on their hands and knees before stopping (ouch). Perry and Danny to instantly turn towards the commotion, worried.

 

They do bounce right back up immediately, unfazed, and turn to face Carmilla.

 

“Oh it’s on, leatherpants,” they say, smiling broadly. You jump out of the way as branches suddenly shoot towards Carmilla, who moves so fast you almost miss the shadows cutting through the branches.

 

Kirsch charges and Carmilla sidesteps him, and you swear you see a sly grin take hold of her face.

 

The nervousness is all gone.

 

At least, for now it is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here are the powers we know so far:
> 
> Laura- empathy/empathy clairaudience, emotional manipulation, telekinetic blast
> 
> Perry- health manipulation, force field generation
> 
> LaF- organic manipulation
> 
> Danny- fire/electricity manipulation
> 
> Kirsch- shapeshifting, specifically animals
> 
> Carmilla- shadow manipulation, shadow portal creation
> 
> Will-teleportation, enhanced strength
> 
> Every single power that I use I refer to http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Superpower_Wiki .
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks!


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey quick warning, there's one misgender at the very beginning (which Carmilla corrects quickly), so yeah. 
> 
> We start right where we left off, from Carmilla's POV. (Don't worry, we switch to Laura's POV as well).

Laura’s dork squad really doesn’t know how to fight, but you kind of expected that. Plant-Ginger trips on your shadow with ease, and soon you have her— _them_ , remember Laura told you they’re non-binary—throwing branches at you. It’s a fruitless attempt, really, because your shadows slice through the attacks like butter.

 

You can hear the Zeta bro winding up to charge at you. The branches seize fire to give him room, and as soon as you see the ram you easily sidestep him, causing him to loose his balance and skid to a stop behind you.

 

You refocus on Plant-Ginger, who’s currently giving you a stare-down (clearly trying to distract you from what’s behind you). There’s a small _whish_ of air behind you, signaling wings flapping and you reach behind you to pull up a wall of shadows (after which you hear a loud _thwack_ followed by a _thump_ of him hitting the ground). You refrain from snickering, because honestly, did the Zeta think he’d be able to sneak up on you like that? He’s as loud as an elephant, without actually being an elephant.

 

After you ran away from your mother’s house and into the city, you’d been on the streets for a bit. You let your anger from past events consume you and would try to fight with anyone that even looked at you funny. The first time someone had actually taken you up on the offer (you’d been drunk, of course), you got your ass kicked and the bar owner had to intervene before the non-power completely knocked you out (you were still _extremely_ uncomfortable using your powers at that point). Once she got out of you that you were homeless, the owner brought you back to her place for the night (she basically waited until you were passed out to take you back to her place, because originally you had refused her help). 

 

The next morning you woke up injured and hungover, and from that point on she basically took you under her wing (not-so-figuratively, as she had flying powers). She taught you how to really fight and defend yourself. You’re forever thankful to her, not only for the fight training and temporary home, but also for a job at her bar. Leaving her and her friends had been a sad day, as you wouldn’t be able to see them too often, but she wouldn’t let you give up on Silas for a “crappy life as a bartender”.

 

The ground beneath you rumbles, pulling you from your thoughts, and you grab at the shadows and teleport just in time to dodge huge roots breaking through the surface. You land behind LaFontaine and tap them on the shoulder, startling them. They quickly turn around and pull the roots towards you (seriously, those are so much bigger than the branches, kudos to Plant-Ginger for that much power). Meanwhile, Kirsch swoops down as a hawk only to transform into a huge tiger to leap at you.

 

It would be unfair to use the teleportation move again. You know they’re really trying and they’ve never “fought” anyone that has had actual training before, so you go for a different tactic.

 

You jump up and pull two shadow-shards beneath you, holding them there, so essentially you end up floating on them, four feet in the air. Kirsch misses you completely and lands below you, right into LaFontaine’s mess of tree roots.

 

They take a few seconds to untangle themselves, and that’s when you look around. You see that Danny and Perry have joined Laura, out of range of miscellaneous branches. Perry is whispering something to Danny that’s clearly about you because the giant is staring at you, and your stomach does a disappointed flop. 

 

Wait, why the hell do you care what they think? You don’t need approval from Laura’s friends.

 

Suddenly small leaves are slicing through the air quickly, hitting you before you can even move. They aren’t hard enough to actually cut you or anything, but they’re still annoying.

 

“Oh yes, leaves, very intimidating,” you say in a monotone. You bring your hand up and examine your fingernails, practically ignoring the leaves whacking you.

 

LaFontaine retaliates by making sure to throw them harder at you. You’re suddenly grateful that you’re mostly covered up with the jacket and pants, because otherwise you’d be all sorts of cut up. As it is, a few catch your face and neck and you know they break skin, even before you feel the blood.

 

You pull up a shadow to block them, this time making sure that it isn’t pure black, but transparent enough to see through (not that you can’t see through your shadows, you always can, it’s just you want LaFontaine and the others to see you).

 

The Plant-Ginger replaces the leaves with branches (they’re not faster, but they’re heavier, you suppose). Meanwhile, you bring more shadows to place underneath your feet as you step forward, climbing higher, and leaving your shadow shield to still block all of LaFontaine’s attacks. You end up about twenty or so feet in the air. You smirk at them, because the branches seem to hit weaker than before (20 feet in the air, against gravity, seems to be about their limit for throwing heavy branches with a lot of force.)

 

You can hear someone’s steps behind you, and since you can’t see Kirsch, you figure it’s him. You’re trying to come up with a dangerous animal on two legs, when you hear it—the _whoosh_ of fire starting.

 

But your mother isn’t here; the torch is back in the light room—

 

You’re frozen anyways, your brain and body operating instinctively. The shadow shards are suddenly not supporting you anymore; you suppose you lost them when your brain decided to stop functioning properly.

 

You’re falling, falling far too fast, and you can’t even call the shadows to catch you.

 

Something snags you out of the air before you can reach the crushing impact you were expecting. You snap out of your paralysis quickly, as you and pterodactyl-Kirsch crash to the ground. You try to push him off of you, but you’re pretty sure you’re lying on some part of him; he just squawks at you in annoyance and pain. 

 

You and Kirsch are still all tangled when the others suddenly appear above you, checking to make sure that you’re okay. Danny, Laura, and Perry are talking all at once (you honestly can’t understand a word their saying), while LaFontaine is just standing there, frowning.

 

They move towards you while the others are still talking worriedly to each other and hold out both of their hands. It takes a second for you to realize they’re trying to help you get up. You raise your hands to them and for the first time you feel a sharp stabbing pain in your wrist.

 

Well, it’s not broken; you don’t think so at least (you think you would've remembered hearing something snap). LaFontaine helps you up—making sure to only use your right hand to help you up—and suddenly Laura is right in front of you. 

 

“Are you okay?” she asks, and you know she’s not just asking about your wrist.

 

Now you are. You nod, “Yeah, I’m good. Honestly.”

 

Laura smiles warmly at you, before reaching out and leading you to Perry. You’re itching to ask if there was anything actually behind you, or if you imagined it, but you don’t want to ask in front of the others. You let Perry heal you (apparently you _had_ broken a bone), before she moves on to check and see if Kirsch has any injuries. Danny ends up following her, and you refrain from making a sarcastic comment about her checking up on her wanna-be-boyfriend (brofriend?).

 

“So, uh, not that I don’t want to take credit for you almost falling to your death,” LaF says, putting their hands in their pockets, “But what happened?”

 

You consider denying everything, but you know it’s pointless because Laura would see right through the lies.

 

“I just thought I heard something behind me I didn’t,” you shrug. You'd almost forgotten that Danny had fire powers. You were in the moment, focusing on LaF and their attacks, and you _fucking forgot that Xena has fire powers_. You should have remembered; all of this could have been avoided if your mind hadn't freaked out instinctively. You just had to start paying attention more. If your god damn mind would just  _be normal_ for once, there won't be any issues. 

 

Laura isn’t reassured, but thankfully she doesn’t say anything. At this point Perry is done checking on Kirsch, so they and Danny join you.

 

It’s pretty awkward, as everyone has their eyes on you. You’re about to tell them to fuck off and go mindlessly fight each other again, but your phone vibrates. This seems to break the tension and everyone starts small talk with each other.

 

You take the phone out of your pocket (thankfully it isn’t broken from your fall), and see that it’s a message from Will.

 

Willy Boy (1:32): _got some information about the thing you asked about the other day._

 

You (1:32): _care to share?_

Willy Boy (1:33): _not over the phone_  

 

You (1:35): _then i suppose it_ _’_ _s time to meet the family. usual place in thirty?_

 

* * * *

Carmilla tells you that her brother had found out some important stuff concerning her mother. Apparently she’d asked him to dig further into their mother’s affairs Thursday night.

 

It had only been a couple of days since then, but your mind is still reeling about all that has happened.  

 

“So Carmilla and Laura can go with me and Perr,” LaF says. You're all walking through the parking lot to get to LaF’s car and Kirsh’s truck.

 

“Oh, no,” Danny shakes her head. “I’m not being stuck with Kirsch by myself. Can Perry go with me in the truck?”

 

You’re not entirely sure why Danny is acting like she's being dragged to go with Kirsch when she rode with him on the way here. Although, they looked about ready to kill each other when you guys met in the Arena’s lobby, so maybe it was a good idea to have someone else go with.

 

“You don’t have to go with blockhead, if you don’t want to,” Carmilla smirks. “There _is_  another car.”

 

“No, it’s whatever, as long as Perry’s with me,” Danny says, and Carmilla glances at you, signaling ‘are you fucking kidding me’.

 

“Dude, I’m right here, you know,” Kirsch says, looking a bit like a kicked puppy.

 

Holy crap, you can feel that Kirsch is actually offended. You focus a bit more and, yep, Kirsch definitely has feelings for Danny. Although, they aren’t as strong as the feelings she has for him.

 

Damn, you owe Carmilla ten bucks.

 

Apparently the conversation is then settled because everyone starts walking to the cars. You follow LaF to their car and Carmilla gives them instructions as they drive, with Kirsch trailing behind you.

 

The _usual place_ ends up being a coffee shop in the middle of the city. It’s crawling with people (it is a nice Saturday afternoon, you suppose) and is so unlike Carmilla, you’re wondering if Will was the one that picked out the place.

 

“This seems like it has too many people for your liking,” you say, as everyone makes their way to the back, where Will has secured two tables pushed together, to make room for everyone.

 

Carmilla shrugs. “It’s busy enough so we can go unnoticed.”

 

She’s not wrong, but you both know that wasn’t the answer you were searching for. You know that this place has some significance to her; you knew since the first time she mentioned it.

 

You take a seat next to Carmilla, who sat next to Will. LaF is sitting next to you at the edge of the table, and across from you are Perry, Danny, and Kirsch.

 

“What’s up, dipshit?” Carmilla greets, and Will smirks at her. You can tell they’re totally related, even if not by blood.

 

“Not much, Kitty, just got information you wanted,” he replies. “But first, why don’t you introduce me to your friends?”

 

Carmilla rolls her eyes. “You know Kirsch. That’s Perry, LaFontaine, and Laura.”

 

Will raises his eyebrows when Carmilla says your name, and it looks like he’s about to say something. But he refrains and stays silent, after the look Carmilla gives him.

 

“So, Carmilla says that you‘ve been trying to save powers from being kidnapped by your mom?” Danny asks before a fight can break out between the siblings, and they both look to her.

 

Will nods. “Yeah, I mean, that makes it sound a lot more heroic than it is. Mostly I just can’t stand our mother’s beliefs.”

 

“Ever since I became friends with you, little bro, I knew you’d do the right thing,” Kirsch smiles, and Carmilla gags.

 

“Oh, sorry, I just got nauseous all of a sudden,” Carmilla says.

 

“Could you be mature for two seconds?” Danny asks, really annoyed.

 

“What was the information, Will?” you ask, because you really figure if you don’t let them talk they’ll knock it off.

 

Will pulls a small flash drive out of his pocket and sets it on the table. “In this stick is an exact copy of my mother’s computer. I’ve got the location of where I think she’s taking the kidnapped victims.”

 

Everyone’s silent, although their emotional reactions are pretty strong. LaF and Kirsch are excited, Perry and Danny are worried, and Carmilla—well, Carmilla’s a mix of emotions. She’s angry, worried, and scared.

 

And you? Well, you’re nervous and excited at the same time.

 

“So what’s the plan, then?” Danny asks.

 

“We have to save them,” you say before you can stop yourself. “Is it here in the city?”

 

Will nods, “It’s a warehouse on the outskirts.”

 

“Hey, do you mind if I take that?” LaF points to the USB. “I have a friend that can comb through it and see if there’s anything else we missed.” Will nods and slides the stick across the table.

 

You don’t realize you’re practically jumping out of your seat, until Carmilla’s hand finds your knee.

 

“We can’t just walk in all gung-ho,” Danny says. “Someone could end up hurt.”

 

“Or dead,” Carmilla says, and everyone looks at her. She leans back in the chair (and takes her hand off your knee in the process. You pretend to not miss the warmth). “What? Have you met my mother? I wouldn’t put it past her, with her personal cabal of the non-powers.”

 

“Why don’t we just call the authorities and let them handle it? Once they see the warehouse with kidnapped people all inside, won’t they have the proof they need to arrest her?” Perry suggests.

 

“She might get arrested, but she wouldn’t stay locked up for long,” Will says. “My mother just has too many connections.”

 

“So what are you saying?” Kirsch asks.

 

“The idiot’s saying that we need to do this ourselves,” Carmilla sighs. “And in order to do that, you guys need to know how to actually fight, because what I saw earlier was just pathetic.”

 

“Hey!” LaF frowns, but you know they’re not actually offended. “I technically won, didn’t I?”

 

Carmilla shakes her head, and you feel her worry spike ever so slightly. “That’s not—you didn’t do that, short stack. I could have had you on your ass in less than ten seconds.”

 

LaF opens their mouth to protest, but Carmilla holds her hand up to silence them. “Don’t worry, though, we’re going to change that. Looks like the Arena is going to be our best friend.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Are we about to get into movie montage material? Maybe!
> 
>  
> 
> Here are the powers we know so far:
> 
> Laura- empathy/empathy clairaudience, emotional manipulation, telekinetic blast
> 
> Perry- health manipulation, force field generation
> 
> LaF- organic manipulation
> 
> Danny- fire/electricity manipulation
> 
> Kirsch- shapeshifting, specifically animals
> 
> Carmilla- shadow manipulation, shadow portal creation
> 
> Will-teleportation, enhanced strength
> 
> Every single power that I use I refer to http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Superpower_Wiki .
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks!


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Sorry this took so long! I hope it all makes sense, I kind of wrote it on my phone while I had down time during tech week for Tarzan. I'm literally at a dinner break as I'm posting this so I'll definitely check up on the chapter later to see if there are any mistakes. 
> 
> We start in Laura's POV, then switch to Carmilla's. 
> 
> And now, I'm off to go see some strangers like me! (Oh god, that was terrible, someone stop me please).

In hindsight, if you thought that Carmilla’s “training” would leave you as sore as you are now, you probably would have thought twice about agreeing to do it.

 

“You’d think the fact that she seems so apathetic about everything, would mean that she wouldn’t make us work so hard,” LaFontaine groans as they plop down in their usual chair in your apartment (how did their muscles allow them to move that fast? You were too sore for that). “We’ve been ‘training’for over a week and Carmilla still finds new ways to make us sore. You sure do know how to pick ‘em, Frosh.”

 

“One: I’m not a freshman anymore, LaF. Two: What are you even talking about?” you ask as you slowly make your way to the kitchen, where Perry is rummaging through your freezer for ice packs. She hands you one, and LaFontaine watches you walk back to your couch before carefully lowering yourself onto it. 

 

“I know something you don’t know,” LaF practically sings. Honestly, you were hoping that LaF would let the whole Carmilla thing go, but for now you decide to play along.

 

“Oh, yeah? What does the all powerful plant overlord know that I don’t?” you ask sarcastically, pressing the ice pack to your hip, where Kirsch had rammed you earlier.

 

“That—” LaF starts, but is interrupted when Perry lays a hand on their shoulder from behind. “It’s nothing, apparently.”

 

You laugh and mutter, “Whipped.”

 

The two haven’t officially announced being in a relationship or anything, but yesterday LaF texted you and told you that both them and Perry decided to sit down and talk about their feelings for each other.

 

So now at least they both know that the love is mutual (and that they’re basically in a relationship).

 

Besides, you accidentally walked in on them extremely close to each other yesterday on LaF’s bed. You’re pretty sure they were about to or had just been kissing, and now you realize you need to knock more.

 

“Hey! I’m not the only one that is, thank you very much,” they smirk, and Perry lightly taps their shoulder.

 

“How are you not dying right now,” you ask both of them, especially Perry, who’s standing. “I feel like my entire body is about to fall apart.”

 

Perry had explained, before they even started training, that she didn’t want to heal anyone unless they were actually injured; because of how the body works to make bones and muscles stronger. They essentially break or tear at a microscopic level, and the body then sends amino acids through the blood to the breaks, which helps build extra bone/muscle to what was there previously, helping you get stronger. If Perry were to heal you before that process could take place, in order for you to not be in pain, which would also mean the muscle and bone wouldn’t get stronger, all the training would’ve been for naught.

 

“Oh, right,” LaF says, breaking you out of your thoughts. “I forget that you don’t know. I have neural impulse manipulation, meaning that I can control what impulses are sent to my brain. Basically I can trick my body into not feeling sore when it should. My muscles and bones are _technically_ still hurting, but I’m telling my brain that I’m not. I can really only control my own impulses at this point, but I’m working at accessing other peoples.”

 

“It can also be really dangerous,” Perry frowns. “If LaFontaine were to actually get injured, while they’re messing with their neural impulses, they wouldn’t know it because they wouldn’t feel anything.”

 

“Not that it’s happened before,” they grumble, and you make a note to ask them about that story later.

 

“So what’s your reason, Perry?” you ask. “You’re not hiding another power from me too, are you?”

 

LaF does look a bit guilty, but you smile to reassure them that you were joking.  

 

“No,” Perry shakes her head. “My only other power is force field generation, which you know about.”

 

Your phone buzzes, signaling that you’ve received a text from Carmilla. You can feel LaF staring at you, amused.

 

You (9:14): _i just wanted to say thanks for doing all of this. i know that you’re not just doing it for me and that you’re dealing with all of my friends that you don’t like, but i really appreciate it!!!_

 

Carm (9:26): _don’t be an idiot, of course i’m doing it for you._

 

“Two guesses as to what you’re smiling about,” LaF says. “Why don’t you just ask her out already.”

 

“Whoa, wait, what?” you ask. “Why would you even—”

 

“Oh come on, it’s obvious you’re into her,” LaF says. “And I’m assuming she’s into you because she’s not a dick to you like she is to everyone else. Also, wouldn’t you know how she feels about you? Because of—”

 

“Leave Laura alone, LaFontaine,” Perry scolds.

 

It was just within this last week that you allowed yourself to officially call it—what you have for Carmilla, that is—a crush. You haven’t really had feelings for anyone since freshman year of high school. And even then, you weren’t sure with the hormones and emotions running around that jungle of a place that it wasn’t someone else’s feelings you were picking up on.

 

Clearly, LaF caught onto your crush faster than you did and, and they refuse to let you forget it.

 

“Hey, all I’m saying is, L should hang out with her _other_ than when she’s kicking our asses. I mean, unless you like that sort of thing,” LaF smirks.

 

“LaFontaine!” Perry is appalled.

 

“No, they’re right,” you wave her off. “If I follow LaF’s plan of action I might even get a date in ten years.”

 

You didn’t realize how angry you were until the words left your mouth, and you want to instantly take them back. “Oh my god, LaF, I’m sorr—”

 

“Don’t worry about it,” they swallow. “Honestly. I kind of deserved it, after all.”

 

“Maybe we should leave,” Perry suggests.

 

“No, no, it’s okay,” you say. “Really. You were right earlier; with most of my finals done I just need to relax.” You pat the couch next to you and Perry nods, before taking a seat next to you.

 

“So,” LaF pulls their attention back to the TV. “How many times am I going to kick your asses at Smash?”

 

“Zero, if I play as Duck Hunt,” you smile as they toss you a remote. The tension from earlier is gone completely.

 

LaF _is_ a bit nervous now, however, so you know your statement is valid: you kick ass with Duck Hunt.

 

* * * *

“Come on, Akeso,” you sigh. “I don’t have all day. Focus.”

 

Perry sighs, and you’ve seen her annoyed before (walking through campus and overhearing her yell at people to follow the dorm rules is pretty funny), but you’ve never really seen her _this_ annoyed.

 

Perfect.

 

“Carmilla, who the hell is Ahkeesko?” she sounds out, losing her focus completely on her force field.

 

You fall to the ground, as you had been trying to get through her invisible defense by pushing against it with your body.

 

“It’s Ake _so_ , not Akesko,” you roll your eyes, standing up. “And, she’s the Greek goddess of healing and curing.”

 

“Not a very well known goddess. And please don't call me that,” Perry frowns, and wow, this is getting way off topic.

 

“Yeah, well, I read a lot. And whatever you say, Doc. Just focus on stopping me from reaching you, so we can finish and you can go make out with Poison Ivy, okay?”

 

You back away to give her some space. You can’t see her field, but you know it’s there because even though it reflects the light and looks invisible, it means it also blocks the light. So, basically, you can feel exactly where her seemingly invisible force field is, because you know where the shadows it casts are.

 

You’re not entirely sure if someone that’s on the other side of the field can see through it, or if the light is blocked by the force field completely and all you would see is something black, void of light. You also don’t know how you’re able to see Perry, and her angry expression, through her light-reflective defense. But hey, powers aren’t made by science (even if they can control it).

 

All in all, Perry’s powers are pretty cool and, although you’d never admit it, you like that she’s in on your suicide mission.

 

You run swiftly towards her and pull up shadows from the dumbbells in the corner of the room to create some wings for yourself. Jumping higher than normal (the wings help a lot), you land on top of her dome shaped force field, about five feet above Perry’s head. Then you pull the shadows around your hands, to make them stronger, and start to pound on her defenses.

 

Of course, it doesn’t budge a bit, which is what you were hoping for. Finally, Perry’s letting loose and is actually using her power you realize (rather than just holding up a weak force field that you could easily pass through) after a few normal punches.

 

“So all I have to do is bash the plant bender and you get mad enough to make a proper force field? Why didn’t I try this earlier?” you ask out loud to yourself, trying different methods of penetrating her defense with your shadows, but to no avail.

 

Including the giant shadow-hammer, damn.

 

“Please don’t talk about LaFontaine like that,” Perry says through gritted teeth, and yeah, Perry’s angry face is actually terrifying. There are only a couple of people you know could top it. “They’re not just some object you can use to taunt me.”

 

You roll your eyes. “Please. I’m not taunting you. I’m just helping you realize your full potent—”

 

Suddenly you’re blown back twenty feet to the hard metal wall (why did you even use the setting where everything but the floor was made of hard metal), and _fuck_ you think your skull is cracked into two.

 

You didn’t think you blacked out, but the next thing you know, Perry is hovering above you, concerned (there’s still angry fire in her eyes, though).

 

“Fuck me in the ass,” you say, sitting up to see that nothing hurts. Apparently Perry felt the need to heal you, once she’d slammed you into the wall. You lean up against the wall (the same wall that you’d just been thrown against), and pull your knees up to rest your hands on. “That was pretty impressive.”

 

Perry frowns. “Two things. One: never tell me to fuck you in the ass again. Two: powers aren’t just tools that you can use to get a leg up on someone else. They're a part of who you are, developing in sync with you, and can even adapt to occurring circumstances. They shouldn’t be used to reach your ‘full potential’. It’s not like you should use them to climb up the theoretical corporate ladder of life. People do that, I’m not blind of course, but all I’m saying is that it isn’t their purpose. I know your mother hasn’t really been there for you growing up, to help you power-wise, but they’re not just assets. They’re—”

 

“Alright, okay, no more lecture, Mom,” you sigh into your hands. Maybe you _did_ have a headache, but that could be developing for a completely different reason.

 

“Carmilla,” you feel Perry’s hand on your shoulder, and _no_ , no one’s allowed to touch you.

 

Perry’s eyes are on you as you stand up and pick up your bag from the far corner. “Training’s over.”

 

“Wait!” she calls after you, but you really don’t want to hear it. You’ve had enough people trying to tell you how to live your life. You’re about to reach the door and suddenly everything in front of you is black.

 

So, apparently you _can’t_ see through Perry’s side of the force field.

 

“I know you’re supposed to be the one training me, but I think you could learn some things as well. Like, the things I think most powers take for granted because their parents are there for them and support their powers.”

 

You spin around, angry now. “Shut the fuck up! I _have_ a mother! A really great one that was there for me, when my real mother gave me away! My mother loves me, no matter what you fucking think.”

 

“I never said she didn’t,” Perry steps towards you cautiously. “But I don’t think—”

 

You charge at her, shadow fists flying. You so overcome with anger you don’t even realize you’re not moving, and _why can’t you reach her?_ You’re being held back by some invisible—oh. _Fuck_ , what you wouldn’t give to just punch Perry in her fucking smug face.

 

“Don’t—” _punch_ “—you—” _punch_ , “—dare—” _punch, punch_ , “—pity me!”

 

You collapse after you’ve given her everything you got, exhaustion finally taking over. You can hear Perry walk over next to you, but she refuses to touch you after your reaction last time. She just let’s you sit there, on your hands and knees, while you catch your breath.

 

“I don’t pity you, Carmilla,” she says after a long time. You haven’t moved, even though you could easily stand up or even properly sit up, but she doesn’t comment on it. “I would like to help you see a different side of your powers.”

 

“Like fuck you are,” you growl, standing up and heading once more to the door (maybe this time you’ll make it—you doubt it). “I’ve had them long enough to know how they work.”

 

“I don’t think you believe that in the slightest,” Perry calls you out right as you reach the door _again_.

 

You sigh as you rest your hand on the door. Two options: stay and talk this shit out (and probably get way more personal with Perry than anyone, including Laura or Will), or walk away.

 

You choose the harder option, because you are Carmilla fucking Karnstein and taking the easy road is for losers.

 

* * * *

It’s been hours, but it’s felt like minutes. You ended up staying and getting all Kumbayah with Easy-Bake. You have to admit it, though, it definitely took you a while before you took Perry and her psychological advice seriously, and you're surprised she even stayed to deal with you. 

 

Not that you’d ever admit that she helped you. To anyone. Including Laura.

 

You finally cave in, answering your phone that’s been buzzing non-stop for the last ten minutes.

 

“This better be good, dipshit, because I’m busy,” you answer.

 

“Mother-dearest is moving shop,” Will says. “We have to move up our plans.”

 

“Wait, seriously?” you frown, and you sit up on your knees. Perry’s eyes are on you, trying to read what’s going on. “To when?”

 

“Tomorrow night.”

 

“We won’t be ready by then,” you shake your head. “Honestly, I wasn’t even sure we’d be ready by Friday. But moving it up three nights? No.”

 

“There’s no option,” your brother replies. “Mother must have also gotten a new computer and new network to communicate on. I can’t get any new information. The last thing updated was a call to help move four trucks worth of things out of the warehouse, where she’s been based. It doesn’t say where they’re going.”

 

You rub your face nervously. “Fuck.”

 

“Looks like your presentation with Laura isn’t the only thing you have to worry about tomorrow,” Will says, and at least he sounds sympathetic.

 

“I hate you sometimes, you know?” you say through your hand.

 

“Love you too, Kitty. I’m expecting an email with a meeting time to discuss a game plan. Please don’t make it too early, you know how I hate to get up.”

 

“Fuck off,” you say, and hang up.

 

“What was that?” Perry asks, eyebrows scrunched up in concern.

 

“That, Doc, was our death wish.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Perry and Carmilla brotp for life!
> 
>  
> 
> Here are the powers we know so far:
> 
> Laura- empathy/empathy clairaudience, emotional manipulation, telekinetic blast
> 
> Perry- health manipulation, force field generation
> 
> LaF- organic manipulation
> 
> Danny- fire/electricity manipulation
> 
> Kirsch- shapeshifting, specifically animals
> 
> Carmilla- shadow manipulation, shadow portal creation
> 
> Will-teleportation, enhanced strength
> 
> Every single power that I use I refer to http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Superpower_Wiki .
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks!


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So as a way of saying sorry for last week being later than I wanted, I added an extra 1,000 words to this chapter. (Yay for getting over tech week, now I've just got 4 more weekends of shows). 
> 
> Laura's POV and then Carmilla's. 
> 
> We are finally getting to the /real/ action, folks. 
> 
> Note: I went back and made sure that last week's chapter did make sense, but if I missed anything, please let me know!

You’re grateful that at least _one_ of your midterms went well. If someone had told you four weeks ago that the only midterm worthy of anything over a grade B would be the research project with Carmilla Karnstein, you would have never believed them.

 

But, you both got through it (mostly thanks to Carmilla finishing the slide show that one Thursday night), and you can’t say you’re disappointed by your presentation, as everyone’s packing up at the end of class.

 

“So, I’m calling a team meeting,” Carmilla says, and you didn’t realize she’d been behind you. Your stomach flips, but it isn’t from surprise.

 

“Oh yeah? And why are you calling this ‘team meeting’?” you turn around and sling your bag over your shoulder.

 

“Why don’t you show up and you’ll find out?” she smiles mischievously. “I’ve asked everyone to meet at the coffee shop at two o’clock.”

 

You glance at your phone and see that it’s just after twelve. You surprise yourself by asking, “You want to have lunch together, then?”

 

Carmilla raises her perfectly sculpted eyebrow, and you can feel she’s surprised as well. To be fair, she’s never really hung out with you or anyone else. Well, other than training or to work on your project together. “I’d rather not deal with the dimwit squad earlier than I have to.”

 

 _Just say it, Laura! The worst she can say is no._ “I meant just the two of us, Carm.”

 

For a moment you aren’t sure if she took it the way that you wanted it to be taken, because her expression is blank. But then, Carmilla gives a genuine smile, one you’ve never seen before (you’re sure not many people get to see it, either), and you know she took it the right way. It absolutely floors you. “I think I’d like that very much.”

 

* * * *

You and Carmilla had just finished eating when you realize the time is almost two o’clock, and that you realize you didn’t exactly have a ride to the coffee shop. You’d both completely lost track of time.

 

“I can ask LaF to come and get us?” you offer.

 

Carmilla shakes her head. “And be stuffed like sardines in a can with the others? No thanks.”

 

“Then how are we going to get there?” you ask. “I know you like to be fashionably late, but I think it would take us at least a half an hour to walk there.”

 

“Who said anything about walking, cutie?” Carmilla smirks as she slips cash into the bill folder.

 

“No, wait, you aren’t paying for this,” you shake your head, raising your hand, which holds your wallet, signaling you want to put in your share.

 

“Think you can stop me?” she half smiles, holding up the folder tauntingly.

 

You quickly go to grab it, and she isn’t holding onto it too hard, because you manage to wrestle it from her fingers. You smile triumphantly, taking it underneath the table and onto your lap, so that she can’t reach it while you get some money from your wallet.

 

You put the folder on the table and go to open it when suddenly it’s covered in darkness and—“Are you serious?”

 

Carmilla smirks as you huff angrily. The waitress appears, and before you even realize it, Carmilla has the bill back in her hand (you’re convinced that she teleported it into her palm). You _know_ the waitress is confused by your frustrated stare and Carmilla’s smug expression, but she doesn’t say anything as she the bill out of Carmilla’s hand. “I’ll be back in just a minute.”

 

“You’ll just have to pay next time, buttercup,” Carmilla leans back in her seat, satisfied.

 

“Who says I want there to be a next time?” you roll your eyes as you put your wallet back into your bag. She’s hurt by the comment, something you definitely weren’t expecting. “That was a joke, Carm. Of course I’d love to go out with you again. I _was_ the one that asked, after all.”

 

Relief sweeps through her system. “I’m really not used to that.”

 

The waitress appears again with some change and the receipt as you ask, “Not used to what?”

 

“Have a nice afternoon,” the waitress smiles and disappears. You grab your bag and you and Carmilla both stand up.

 

Carmilla takes five dollars and leaves it on the table before you both head out of the restaurant.

 

“Carm?” you ask, because you figure she’s forgotten what you asked her, and your inner journalism wants to know the answer. “What aren’t you used to?”

 

“Beautiful girls being able to read me,” Carmilla shrugs, facing you. She holds out her hands, palms up, signaling for you to place yours on top.

 

Your heart speeds up as your skin makes contact. Then Carmilla pulls you in, to what you assume is an out-of-character hug, and you _know_ your heart leaps into your throat. You wrap your arms around her and rest your chin on her shoulder (she is only a few inches taller than you, after all).

 

“Hold on, cutie,” she whispers in your ear, and instantly everything around you goes dark (so black, the darkest you’ve ever seen, there’s no way to escape—) before you’re suddenly on a different street, and this old lady almost plows into you both. Carmilla pulls away from you, quickly opens the door behind her and shoves you inside the building, all before the angry woman can say anything to you.

 

“This is the coffee shop,” you state out loud, because your mind is a mess right now. The trip through the void of shadows took your body and mind by complete surprise.

 

“Right again, Lois Lane,” Carmilla says as she starts to walk towards the table they had occupied last time in the back (Danny, LaF, and Perry are already there, having a conversation and have yet to notice you).

 

When you don’t follow (you’re not entirely sure why your brain is still processing what just happened, but it is), Carmilla turns back towards you. Her concern increases as she walks back towards you, and her eyebrows crease (okay, yeah, it’s about time you admit it was adorable).

 

“Are you okay?” she asks.

 

“Yeah,” you respond. She raises an eyebrow and you know she doesn’t believe you. “It’s just—it was so dark, everything was so black that I couldn’t _see anything_ and—” 

 

“Hey, Laura,” you didn’t realize Carmilla had taken your hands in hers, but you’re not complaining. “Laura. You’re not there anymore. Look around you, there’s light everywhere. Your friends are right over there. The world is exactly as it used to be, nothing changed. I’m so sorry I didn’t realize it would freak you out so much. I won’t ever do that again if—”

 

“Carm, it’s okay,” you cut her off, but her worry didn’t decrease. “I just wasn’t expecting it. Next time, warn a girl before you take her into shadowland, okay?”

 

“Shadowland makes it sound like a theme park,” Carmilla rolls her eyes, but she does seem a bit relieved.

 

“Well, I’m sure it is to you,” you give her a smile, letting her know that the effects are wearing off. “And that’s all that matters, considering how often you travel that way.”

 

Carmilla shrugs and pulls away. “Do you want anything to drink?” There’s some sadness underneath her façade, ever since she realized her teleporting you had affected you, but you decide not to push it.  

 

“No, I’m still full from lunch,” you reply, and she nods before leading you back to the table.

 

“Hey Laura,” Danny greets and takes a sip of her drink as you both sit down. “Karnstein.”

 

“Pyro, Ginger Twins,” Carmilla nods, and there isn’t as much bite to it as there had been a week ago. Maybe Carmilla was actually starting to get along with your friends. “As soon as Kirsch and Will get here, I’ll get started.”

 

“You’re not going to tell us what this is about, are you?” Danny asks.

 

“Not until everyone’s here,” Carmilla leans back in her seat. “I don’t want to repeat anything.”

 

Whatever’s going on, you know that Perry knows as well. She’s ten times more nervous than normal, and she keeps glancing over at Carmilla (who’s on her phone and seems disinterested, but is nervous as well) between gulping down her caffeinated drink (something else unusual). You almost work up the courage to ask Perry to spill it, when Kirsch and Will enter the coffee shop.

 

Will goes to wait in line to order drinks while Kirsch comes over and plops into a seat next to Danny.

 

“How’s it going, bros?” he asks, and Danny rolls her eyes (it doesn’t stop her from feeling happy that he’s here, though).

 

“Hey Kirsch,” LaF responds, and Carmilla sits up and puts her phone into her pocket.

 

“Alright, I guess I’ll start because Will’s already informed on what’s going on,” Carmilla starts, and all eyes are on her. “So basically plans have changed. We aren’t going to attempt infiltration on my mother’s warehouse on Friday night.”

 

“I swear Elvira, if it’s because you don’t think we live up to your stupid standards—” Danny begins, annoyed.

 

“We’re moving our plans up,” Carmilla interrupts, clearly done with Danny’s assumptions. “Because my mother is moving to a different warehouse, which we don’t know the location of.”

 

“When are we going, then?” LaF asks.

 

Carmilla sighs. “Tonight.”

 

* * * *

This is honestly a suicide mission, and the fact that everyone (including Laura) is trying to convince themselves that it isn’t almost drives you insane.

 

Even Will should know better. He’s seen what your mother is capable of (well, he didn’t _exactly_ know what mother had done to you as punishment, but still, she is a terrifying woman).

 

You are all hiding out in the abandoned warehouse across the street from the one your mother is currently occupying. Will had helped transport everyone there silently, as you didn’t want another incident.

 

Honestly, you’d never really transported anyone but yourself. So you hadn’t any idea it could’ve affected someone the way it affected Laura. You suppose you understood why it freaked her out so much; you were traveling _through_ shadows, after all. You’re not entirely sure how it works; you only know that you use the shadows nearest you and the shadows closest to the location you want to travel, jumping in and out from them.

 

At least, that’s what Ell observed and told you, as you can’t actually see anything outside the shadows when you’re teleporting.

 

It’s just after midnight, which means there _should_ only be a skeleton crew of guards. Yet, you feel the need to check, just to be sure.

 

“Alright, dimwits, stay here and I’ll check out how many people there are on duty tonight,” you stand up and glance at everyone, daring one of them to protest.

 

Everyone at least had the decency to wear as dark of clothes as they could manage. For Will it meant black jeans and a black hoodie. For Kirsch it meant digging through his closet and finding a black ‘save the undies’ t-shirt and dark jeans. LaFontaine had a long, black sleeve v-neck, underneath a black vest and black jeans. Danny was also clothed in a long, black sleeve t-shirt and dark jeans. You’d convinced Laura to wear one of your black hoodies with her own black jeans, and Perry was wearing a dark grey turtleneck and black jeans.

 

And you? Black jeans, a plain black t-shirt, and your favorite leather jacket.

 

“I’ll be back,” you say, pulling the shadows and transporting yourself across the street. From the plans that Will showed you, you knew there were only two other rooms, other than the main storage area in the warehouse; a laboratory and a reception area to keep out unwanted guests. You aim for a shadow in the entrance/reception area. Instead of going through the shadow, however, you stay in ‘shadowland’, hovering just inside the shadow. You can see out of the shadow, like a window, and the best part is that no one could possibly see you. There’s a young man sitting at a very old desk (the entire room looks like it’s seen better days, and this is a pretty old warehouse anyways) glancing on his phone. Next to him are a couple of monitors that display at least four security cameras, all inside the warehouse, but he doesn’t seem to pay any attention to them.

 

You slip out of the shadow and decide to teleport your way to the storage space. You end up in glancing out of a shadow the southeast corner and find that there aren’t any people in the huge room; just a fuck ton of packed up boxes near the loading dock in the northwest corner. Your stomach flips. You were at least hoping to find some of the people who your mother had taken. Maybe she really did kill them after all.

 

You pull the hood on your leather jacket up. Once you’re positive your hair is all tucked in, you pull shadows over your face, masking it. You then make sure the security camera is facing away before stepping out and quickly heading over to the door you believe leads to the lab. You stop in front of the door and listen for a couple of seconds. Hearing absolutely nothing, you conclude that no one could possibly be working in there. Then you sprint back towards the shadow you popped out of, and dive into it before the security camera can make its sweep back towards you. 

 

Because you jumped into the shadow, back at the warehouse, you end up landing on the ground and slide a couple of feet before stopping. You quickly stand up, however, and brush yourself off as everyone gets up and runs over to you to make sure you’re okay.

 

“What’s going on?” Laura asks. “Are you okay?”

 

“I’m fine,” you say. “I couldn’t see any signs of the kidnapped people. As far as I can tell, there’s only one kid sitting at the entrance watching the security camera feed, and he couldn’t care less. My mother sure does know how to pick them.”

 

Will chuckles, but that doesn’t seem to put anyone else at ease.

 

“So, does that mean we continue with the plan?” Danny asks.

 

You nod. “Poison Ivy, you’re up. Just like we practiced. He’s sitting at the desk on his phone, so it should be easy.”

 

“This is so hardcore,” they smile, stepping towards Will.

 

“Be careful, please,” Perry says to both of them. They nod, and Will glances at LaFontaine to make sure they’re ready, before taking their hands and then they’re gone.

 

“You’re sure they can actually put him to sleep?” Laura asks quickly. You turn to her and see for the first time how giddy and excited she actually is. You hope she’s at least a little bit nervous (you sure as hell are), because you’re still not entirely sure that this isn’t a trap.

 

“Sure as I can be, creampuff. They tricked Kirsch’s brain into a deep sleep in less than ten seconds, and he’s about a foot taller than the guy I saw in there.” 

 

Will and LaFontaine appear about thirty seconds later, high-five-ing each other, before turning to face the group again. You roll your eyes, but you can’t help but feel relieved when Ginger 1 gives you a thumb up.

 

“We have about an hour to snoop around, and that’s about it,” you say. “No more than that. And whatever you touch, you need to make sure you leave it _exactly_ like it was before. If my mother suspects anything, we’ll be eating through tubes the rest of our lives.”

 

You decide that Danny and Will are going to travel over with you first, and then Will can travel back and get the others, one by one. 

 

Everyone makes it in one piece, which is nice, and you all set off to work, opening the boxes. They aren’t taped, just folded together, which makes your job easy.

 

Most of what you guys find is lab equipment: microscopes, Petri dishes, test tubes, etc. LaFontaine seems excited about it at first, but once they realize that everything is clean, that nothing remains from whatever my mother had been using it for, they became discouraged.

 

“This tells us nothing,” they sigh. “At least if they had some remains from the subjects they’d been working with, we could have had _some_ idea of what they’re up to.”

 

You know that at least you and Xena are thinking the same thing, because she glances over at you uncertainly. The test subjects they had been working on were the people they kidnapped, you were pretty sure.

 

“I think it’s a good thing that we don’t have what they were working on,” you say. _Because that means they’re not cut up and they’re alive_ , you leave unsaid.

 

Laura and Perry had just finished opening up a bigger box, revealing what looked like a dentist’s chair in pieces.

 

“I want to see if there’s anything in the lab still,” LaFontaine says. 

 

“I think it’s locked,” Will says from behind a pile of boxes. Suddenly Kirsch laughs at something they must have discovered. “Take Kitty with you.”

 

You roll your eyes, but end up going with them anyways.  They seem to be determined to find _some_ thing that was left behind by the scientists working for your mother. Blood samples, hair, anything.

 

You pick the lock in about ten seconds.

 

“Dude, that’s really cool,” LaFontaine says as you flick your hand and the shadows go back to their normal place. “You have to teach me how to do that sometime.”

 

“If we get out of this alive I'll teach you how to do anything you want," you say, opening the door. When you see what's inside, you freeze. 

 

“Why, hello Carmilla.”

 

 _Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, why won’t your fucking legs work? You need to_ fucking _run!_

 

Looks like you won't be getting out of this alive. (Sorry LaF). They also seem frozen behind you, unable to run. 

 

“Well aren’t you happy to see me, sport?” the man asks, standing up from the fold up and placing the book, he had been reading, face down on the ground. “It’s been three years, and you won’t even give your old Uncle Hitchcock a hello?”

 

“I, uh…” your brain seems to be at a loss for words. Hitchcock, a tall man with graying hair pulled back into a ponytail, harsh eyes, and a wicked smile steps towards you. He’s even got a lab coat on, how evil scientist of him.

 

“Have been snooping around in something that is none of your business,” he finishes your sentence. His dark, husky voice brings up so many memories, most of which you’d rather forget.

 

 _This is the man that murdered Ell_.

 

“Do you _really_ think that Lily wouldn’t know about you and your brother’s conniving little plan? That she didn’t give you this location on purpose? That she didn’t let me sit here, waiting for _you,_ in particular, to find me? After all, we parted on such bad terms, dear. You showed me your true powers then, it’s only fair I return the favor,” Hitchcock is right in front of you, and you _really_ want nothing more than to run. You injured Hitchcock, almost killed him the last time you saw him, and you know he’s angry enough to end your pathetic little life. You hear frantic footsteps behind you—you hope LaF makes it in time to warn the others.

 

“Don’t you dare touch them,” you manage to say (your voice cracks, that was so intimidating, Carmilla), and the last thing you remember is Hitchcock’s sinister smile before he places both of his hands on your cheekbones—then suddenly you’re surrounded by darkness.

 

For once, it doesn’t comfort you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Squints* is that a cliffhanger I see?
> 
> What are Hitchcock's powers? Would I really kill Carmilla off? Is LaF ever going to find the science samples they deserve? Tune in next time to find out!
> 
>  
> 
> Here are the powers we know so far:
> 
> Laura- empathy/empathy clairaudience, emotional manipulation, telekinetic blast
> 
> Perry- health manipulation, force field generation
> 
> LaF- organic manipulation
> 
> Danny- fire/electricity manipulation
> 
> Kirsch- shapeshifting, specifically animals
> 
> Carmilla- shadow manipulation, shadow portal creation
> 
> Will- teleportation, enhanced strength
> 
> Hitchcock- you kind of don't want to know, but you do, because Carmilla's health depends on what it is >:)
> 
> Every single power that I use I refer to http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Superpower_Wiki .
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks!


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here we are! We finally find out what the hell happened (well, sort of).
> 
> Laura's POV at first, then Carmilla's. 
> 
> I'm about halfway through the next chapter, so you'll probably get an update before the end of the week (yay!).

So, as it turns out, everything _didn’t_ go to spec when you basically broke into the Dean’s super secret warehouse and tried to find out what was going on.

 

Suddenly LaF is sprinting over to you guys and yelling, “Run, there’s a scary dude in the lab and I’m pretty sure he’s going to hurt us!”

 

You turn to see where they had run from and see a man, with his graying hair pulled back in a ponytail, stepping over Carmilla, who’s lying on the floor. _There’s no way she’s dead, Hollis, why would you even think that?_

 

“Oh fuck,” Will says. “It’s Hitchcock! We have to get out of here!”

 

“Not without Carmilla,” you tell him. You’re not processing anything, but there’s the fact that Carmilla is lying, seemingly lifeless, on the ground and you _need to help her_.

 

“Laura, wait!” Danny calls after you, but you’re sprinting towards the shadow bender anyways. You’re relieved to see that Carmilla is still breathing, though she is completely passed out.

 

“Hey!” you yell, getting Hitchcock’s attention. He had apparently ignored everyone else, despite Will’s concern, and had gone straight for the door by the loading dock. “What the hell did you do to her?”

 

Everyone’s extremely nervous, but Will is by far the worst. You think the teleporter might know what his mother’s accomplice did, but you have a feeling that whatever happened, Hitchcock might be the only one that could fix it.

 

“Don’t step into affairs that are none of your concern,” Hitchcock says, sneering. He reaches out and puts his hand on the doorknob, clearly done with you and the others.

 

“Don’t let him leave!” you yell, desperate. You would chase after him yourself; you just don’t want to leave Carmilla. You don’t remember grabbing her left hand, but you’re holding onto it with both of yours as if it were a lifeline (whether it’s hers or yours, you aren’t sure).

 

Danny comes to your aid and sprints towards him. Hitchcock slowly turns around and flashes an evil smile, causing her to stop dead in her tracks. She responds by lighting her fists on fire.

 

“You can control fire, eh?” he says, stepping forward slightly. “Perfect. Tell me, do you have any idea how much Carmilla fears fire? I bet you two are best of friends.”

 

Danny shoots fireballs at Hitchcock, but he easily dodges them and sprints forwards towards the tall redhead.

 

“Don’t let him touch you!” Will shouts before suddenly disappearing from his spot behind some boxes.

 

He teleports back down behind Hitchcock but it’s too late; Danny didn’t manage to get out of the way before the scientist places a palm on her forehead and she almost instantly falls to the floor. Will teleported too close to dodge Hitchcock spinning around and grabbing him in a chokehold. He immediately passes out in the man’s hand before being dropped down to the ground.

 

“Danny! Will!” Kirsch cries out, running towards both of them, as Hitchcock steps around them and once again heads for the door.

 

You’re so angry; you don’t even realize you’re sprinting towards Hitchcock until Perry yells your name. You don’t stop, however, but push forwards.

 

“ _What the fuck did you do_?” you yell, releasing a telekinetic blast that causes boxes to be upended and Hitchcock to be thrown forward, landing face-down on the ground just outside the warehouse.

 

You reach him just as he’s scrambling to roll over, and you grab him by the collar and bring him closer to you so that you can yell at him properly.

 

“You better not have done anything to my friends or I’ll—” you say with such malice that the words sound foreign to you.

 

You’re interrupted when Hitchcock brings his hands up around either side of your neck, and then the world goes black.

 

* * * *

You come to with Perry hovering worriedly over you. It takes a second for everything to come back to your memory, but once it does—

 

“Where’s Carmilla? Is everyone okay? What happened?”

 

“Slow down, Laura, you just woke up,” Perry frowns as you sit up. Something feels off. You are all just inside the back door where you faced Hitchcock earlier. Flattened cardboard boxes were underneath you, providing a little bit of comfort against the concrete floor. You sit up completely and lean up against the wall just to the left of the doorway to get a better view of everything. Will is sitting about ten feet in front of you, also on some flattened boxes, cradling Carmilla’s head (who is still unconscious) in his lap, with her long black curls falling over his knees. The others are sitting on some upright boxes in a semi-circle around him. The teleporter keeps his head down, looking blankly at his sister; you’re not even sure if he’s acknowledging any of his surroundings except for her. He’s not crying, but you know he’s certainly worried.

 

“I can’t believe you thought that the first word out of her mouth wouldn’t be Carmilla,” LaF smirks and nudges Danny with their elbow, but their expression is almost instantly gone when she stares harshly back at them, clearly not amused. “Sorry. Trying to lighten the mood.”

 

“You know, technically it wasn’t,” Will says, not moving at all. By the way that everyone’s surprised, you think these might be the first words he’s spoken since waking up. “The first word she said was ‘where’s’.”

 

LaF chuckles, but everyone goes silent again as Perry crouches down in front of you and asks, “Are you injured?”

 

You shake your head. “Nothing hurts. Now can you please tell me what’s going on?”

 

“Well, uhm…” Perry trails off, thinking.

 

“Hitchcock’s gone,” LaF says, taking over. “Kirsch transformed and tried to get Hitchcock as a tiger right after you got knocked out. That sort of backfired, however, because even though Kirsch had him backed up against a wall, Hitchcock ended up putting his bare hands out in defense and touched Kirsch’s skin before Kirsch could rip his throat out. Perr and I then ran back to the lab and tried to close the door and lock it, but he was right on our heels. The last thing I remember is Hitchock shoving Carmilla out of the doorway, so he could wedge his foot in between the door and the frame, then suddenly his hand shoots out and touches my arm and—bam, nothing.”

 

Perry had made her way back over to LaFontaine as they were telling their story, and was now leaning on them with her arms around their neck.

 

“I thought he was going to come after me, too. But he didn’t. He stood there in the doorway and told me that, ‘this is a message to stay away from Mrs. Morgan or me if you wish to make it out alive. Have fun remembering this while it lasts.’ And then he turned and walked out the back door. I was so confused by his last statement and scared that you were all dead—I mean, from what he said I knew logically you couldn’t be, but I had my doubts. There was nothing _physically_ wrong with you guys. Your vitals were all normal and it seemed you were just in a deep sleep, which I couldn’t bring you out of, even with my powers. So I carefully moved you all in here and tried to make it as comfortable as I possibly could—I had no idea when you would wake up. Then all I could do was wait and hope that you guys _would_ actually wake up. It took about twenty minutes for LaFontaine to come to. I checked to make sure they were okay and as soon as I had finished, Will woke up. He was, uh, concerned for Carmilla and didn’t say anything except that he had to make sure that she woke up okay. Danny was up next, followed closely by Kirsch. That was about fifteen minutes ago. Now you’re awake, so all we have left is to wait for Carmilla to do the same.”

 

“So he just put us to sleep, then?” you ask. “Hitchcock’s power is the ability to take energy?”

 

“Seems that way,” Danny responds.

 

“No,” Will says sharply. “That’s not his power.”

 

“Then what is—?” Kirsch starts to ask, but is interrupted by Carmilla stirring. Everyone seems to freeze, but you stand up quickly and scramble to Will’s side.

 

“Kitty, it’s okay, you’re safe,” Will says soothingly. Carmilla’s eyes snap open as she gasps for breath.

 

You were expecting Carmilla to be confused, startled even—but you weren’t expecting what would follow.

 

Carmilla turned into a small, black kitten.

 

“What the fuck?” Danny asks, and everyone is suddenly standing around you, Will, and kitten-Carmilla (who’s huddling in fear).

 

Will leans forward tentatively before carefully petting Carmilla. She relaxes at his touch. “I didn’t mean to _actually_ turn into a kitty, Kitty. Carmilla, you’re okay. Everyone’s okay. Please turn back. I know you can figure out how to.” Carmilla meows strongly in response, and rubs up against Will’s hand while circling around it.

 

Everyone leans back and Will removes his hand to give enough space for her to turn back into a human. There’s a swift _whoosh,_ and suddenly Carmilla is once again in human form, on her hands and knees.

 

“Fuck!” she groans, sitting up. “I had to get the brainless puppy’s power!”

 

“What the hell did we just see?” LaFontaine asked.

 

“Hitchcock doesn’t take peoples’ energy,” Will looks around at everyone. “He temporarily absorbs someone’s power and switches it with the next person he physically touches.”

 

“So in other words,” Carmilla sits up. “We all just had a power-switcheroo.”

 

* * * *

There’s no way that you can just go back to your apartment (or anyone else go back to their place, for that matter). Mother will have her people there to forcefully inject you with some sort of memory serum that would make you forget about all of this.

 

She used to threaten you with it all the time, when you were little. She told you to stop using your powers or she would give you a memory-loss injection that would make it so you forgot you even had them. It was always an empty threat, you thought, until she used it on Ell.

 

Ell didn’t recognize you the last time you saw her. She screamed and yelled from her cell, across the way from yours, that she had no fucking clue who you were, or why she was there. She begged to be let out.

 

In the end, she died not even knowing why she was being tortured.

 

“Hey, are you okay?” Laura asks, pulling you out of your thoughts. You’re sitting just outside the warehouse, because you really needed some fresh air. The others were all inside, deciding what to do now.

 

 _Good_ , you think. _Let them decide. Whenever you decide things people end up dead or hurt_.

 

“Yeah, I’m fine,” you respond, and turn to look at her. “What about you?”

 

Laura nods. “It’s definitely weird—I don’t feel completely like myself. Like some part of me is off.”

 

You shrug. “It could be worse, I guess. You could have my powers.”

 

“Don’t say that,” Laura frowns. “There’s nothing wrong with your powers. They were meant for you, so how can they be bad?”

 

You look away and bring your hand up to the bridge of your nose. “I’m not getting into this right now, cupcake.”

 

“Hey, pet names,” Laura elbows you lightly. “That’s a good sign that you’re doing fine, right?”

 

You roll your eyes, but you can’t help the small smile that spreads from your lips. This girl could get you to smile in almost any situation, apparently.

 

“Look, we should discuss what happened earlier today at lunch,” Laura says. “Because I really enjoyed myself and I really _do_ want there to be a next time.”

 

Suddenly there’s yelling coming from inside, and you don’t even have to really listen to know that it’s Kirsch and Danny.

 

“Well that ruined the moment,” you roll your eyes.

 

“Should we go put out the fire?” Laura laughs, standing up.

 

“Xena doesn’t have fire powers any more, cutie, so I’m not sure you can say that,” you smirk as Laura hits you lightly. She then offers you a hand, which you take to help you stand up.

 

“Come on, we can’t let them kill each other.”

 

* * * *

The dimwit squad is totally incapable of coming up with a solid plan. So it’s a good thing you had one, almost as soon as you woke up. You were hoping that you didn’t have to use it, but it looks like it’s the only option. 

 

You tell everyone that you have a safe place, which isn’t under your mother’s radar, downtown. It had taken them a bit to agree to all go—not everyone was convinced that your mother had minions staked out at their places—but eventually, they agreed it was the safest option to crash there until everything cooled off.

 

So that’s how you find yourself walking for over three hours (everyone walked so fucking slow, and you all agreed that Laura teleporting everyone was _not_ an option) to get to a place you hadn’t been to for several years.

 

When you make it to the front doors of the middle-class apartment building, it’s nearly 8 o’clock in the morning. A few young people in business suits make their way out and stare at you (you suppose you all do look like hell, and you wouldn’t put it past them to believe any one of you to be under the influence of something).

 

“Alright, I’m going to see if it’s clear for us to stay,” you make your way towards the door. “Feel free to kill each other while I’m gone. That way less people will have to stay.”

 

Someone yells an offended, “Hey!” at you as you walk inside.

 

“Is that who I think it is?” a young woman with blonde hair says as she’s exiting the elevator.

 

“In the flesh,” you smile as she runs up to you and envelops you in a bone-crushing hug.

 

“Watch it, Elsie!” you say.

 

“Right, right,” she pulls back. “Sorry. Super-strength is deactivated. It’s been such a long time, ‘Milla! What brings you back here? You didn’t drop out of college, did you?”

 

“Ah, no,” you say, but look away anyways, nervous. “But I am in a tight spot. It’s my mother. Me and my uh, friends in black waiting outside were wondering if—”

 

“You know you’re always welcome here!” Elsie says, putting her arms on your shoulders and looking through the glass doors towards Laura and the others. “M isn’t using her apartment, because she’s out of town for a few days visiting family, so I’m sure she’d let you use hers. You still have a key, don’t you? I can give her a call and let her know. I have to jet, but go and get some sleep and wash up, you look like crap.”

 

You roll your eyes, but you’re still smiling. “Thanks, Elsie.”

 

“No problem. We have to catch up once I get off work,” Elsie says, giving you a quick hug before heading out the door. You motion for the others to come inside. Looking around at the small foyer, you realize that nothing has changed since the last time you were here. There are still two small couches and a coffee table to the left, and the doorman, John, was even still asleep at his desk to the right. The group quietly (for once) makes their way to you, and you lead them to the elevators at the back of the long, skinny room.

 

The exhaustion is finally catching up with everyone as you make your way up to the third floor and down the hallway to room 307. You reach in your backpack and pull out the keycard from your wallet, before opening the door and ushering everyone in.

 

The apartment is a two-bedroom with a relatively big living room area, two bathrooms (only one with a shower), and a kitchen. You’re sure that Perry is in paradise because nothing in the apartment is out of place and there isn’t a dust bunny to be seen; even the white carpet in the living area is spotless.

 

Will hops into the shower first. Meanwhile, you pull out some blankets from the hallway cabinet, and bring them out to the couches, where everyone else has taken residence. LaFontaine found the TV remote and the morning news is running, which almost makes you fall asleep on the spot, standing. 

 

The others argue over who is getting in the shower when, and finally come up with an order. During Laura’s the shower time, the rest of you decide who’s to crash where. LaFontaine called the recliner, Perry took the couch, Will said he was fine on the living room floor, and Danny and Kirsch agreed to take the guest bedroom (Kirsch on the floor, Danny on the twin bed).

 

Leaving you and Laura with the master bedroom.

 

You go to put your bag in the bedroom and to finally take your long awaited shower (everyone else had finished already), but instead you find yourself sitting down on the bed, looking around to see if anything has changed in there.

 

You’re unsurprised to see that it hasn’t really; you stand up to get a closer look of one of two pictures on the dresser.

 

It’s one of the few pictures you’re actually smiling in. You’re with several other people, all a few years older than you, sitting in a booth in a bar. You, and the girl next to you, are both holding up your drinks. Everyone just seems so happy in the picture, you can’t help but feel a bit sentimental looking at it. 

 

Even though it was several years ago, it seems like yesterday. Sometimes you wish it were.

 

Your phone vibrates from the bed and you go lay back on the bed to answer it. It ends up just being another spam email.

 

Now that you’re sprawled out on the outrageously comfortable mattress (why did you think lying down on the bed would be a good idea? Thanks, almost dead smart-phone), you don’t want to get up. It’s only been around 20 seconds, but you can already feel yourself falling asleep. You’re a mess and you don’t feel great, so a hot shower would definitely do you some good. Yet, you still can’t bring yourself to even get up to change clothing, turn off the light, or even get under the covers. (Seriously, you must be exhausted if you’re willing to have the light touch your skin while sleeping, even if it is artificial).

 

You’re in a half-sleep state, when you hear the door open. “Carm?”

 

“Hm?” you respond, barely audible, and bury your head further into the pillow.

 

You hear her laugh softly and suddenly the bed shifts, letting you know she must have sat down.

 

“I thought you were going to get in the shower?” Laura asks, but she’s rubbing circles on your back and _man_ that’s not helping you stay awake.

 

“Mhmm,” you hum, and you swear you’re about to get up any minute now to actually take that shower.

 

A minute later—you’re so close to sleep and fuck the shower idea you’re comfortable—the sheets are suddenly being pulled from underneath you. You curl up so that you’re in a more comfortable position and then the sheets are on top of you.

 

“Thanks,” you mumble, burying yourself further into the covers.

 

“Good night, Carmilla,” Laura whispers, and she’s way closer than you originally thought.

 

* * * *

“Carmilla! Please wake up!” LaFontaine’s voice calls out, and _why_ are you awake? This is way too soon to be awake. 

 

“No!” you growl, and you’re pretty sure it wasn’t supposed to sound like a whine—you don’t do that.

 

“Not even for little old me?” a second voice asks, and, wait a minute—

 

“Fuck,” you say, surprised. You sit up quickly to see that Laura, LaFontaine, and a third woman are all standing at the foot of the bed. 

 

“You could have told us the apartment was occupied!” Laura seems sort of mad. Her arms are crossed in front of her, and although her foot isn’t tapping on the ground impatiently or anything, she’s making that adorable scrunched up angry face. LaFontaine seems curious, and the other woman just seems amused and happy to see you. 

 

“I was uh, planning on it,” you rub your face, trying to wake up. This is what you get for trusting Elsie, you suppose. “Guys, this is Matska Belmonde, the owner of this apartment and an old friend of mine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you really think I could kill off my favorite character when there's a lot more left to go? And it looks like our crew is definitely going to have to adjust to some stuff (whoops). 
> 
> (Aw man, why did I do this? Now I have to restart the list of powers)
> 
>  
> 
> NEW list of everyone's powers:
> 
> Carmilla- shape shifting, specifically animals
> 
> Laura- teleportion, enhanced strength
> 
> Danny- ?
> 
> Will- ?
> 
> Kirsch- ?
> 
> LaF- ?
> 
> Perry- health manipulation, force field generation
> 
> Hitchcock- power transferal
> 
> Elsie- enhanced strength
> 
> Mattie- (I've technically already revealed it, but I'm not putting it here yet because no one but Carmilla knows)
> 
> Every single power that I use I refer to http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Superpower_Wiki .
> 
>  
> 
> Honestly, if you /really/ want to know what almost everyone's powers are now, you could probably figure it out by looking at the order that Hitchcock ended up touching people (okay, that last bit sounded weird). 
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks!


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I was correct in saying I could update before the week is over! Awesome!
> 
> We go from Carmilla's POV to Laura's and back to Carmilla's (is that the Lawstein brotp I see forming?)
> 
> This is sort of a filler chapter as the squad gets settled into Mattie's place. Next chapter we'll really be dealing with the power switch. More brotp's (and otp's?) will be formed, my fellow readers. 
> 
> My Beta and I will be pretty busy this weekend (and Tarzan is moving venues so I have another mini tech week about to happen next week), so the next update probably won't be until the end of next week.

“Why don’t you shower and then we go on a coffee run?” Mattie offers as you swing your legs over the edge of her bed.

 

LaFontaine and Laura had left the room right after they had both officially introduced themselves to Mattie, leaving you two alone.

 

“It’s like you can tell I’m not a morning person,” you say sarcastically. You lie back on the bed and put your hands over your eyes. It’s way too bright in here, and you resist the urge to itch your skin. You keep your room pitch black back in your apartment, because your body needs a bit of time between you waking up and the time when you’re comfortable being in the light. You were lucky that the guest bedroom doesn’t have any windows, so you were actually able to keep it as dark as possible when you stayed here three years ago.

 

Apparently losing your shadow powers didn’t change anything about you being uncomfortable in rooms with bright light. You suppose you don’t deserve as much.

 

“It’s technically the early afternoon,” Mattie sits down next to you. “Come on, I’m sure your friends would love some coffee.”

 

“Alright, alright,” you sit up slowly, and before you know it Mattie has you engulfed in a hug.

 

“Are you okay?” she whispers in your ear, and you realize she’s worried.

 

“Of course,” you say, and Mattie pulls back, concerned.

 

“Don’t lie to me, Carmilla,” she says, reaching up and moving a strand of hair out of your face (oh man, your full name, she’s being serious). “You know I can see right through your bullshit.”

 

You sigh. “Shower. Then I’ll explain everything on the way to get coffee.”

 

* * * *

“That’s quite a situation you’re in,” Mattie says as you both enter the coffee shop a couple of blocks away from her apartment building. “No wonder they’re all basically passed out.”

 

“Yeah, we’re all pretty exhausted,” you respond as you both get into line to order.

 

When you and Mattie left the apartment, a majority of the dimwit squad was still recovering from last night. LaFontaine had almost immediately gone back to the recliner and was attempting to fall back asleep; Will was still undisturbed on his pile of blankets on the ground, there was no sign that Danny had woken up and you could hear Kirsch snoring from the other room. The only two people that seemed to be awake were Laura and Perry, who were both sitting on the couch scrolling through their phones.

 

“We’re going on a coffee run,” Mattie had told them quietly. “If there’s anything specific you or the others want, you can text Carmilla, otherwise we’ll just get you black coffee. Feel free to eat or drink anything in the kitchen.”

 

You had followed her out the door and once you got to the elevator you started your story. She listened patiently the entire way, never asking questions (something you were extremely grateful for).

 

“What can I get for you?” the barista asks, pulling you from your thoughts.  Mattie orders the drinks and then refuses to let you pay.

 

“If you really want to pay for something, why don’t we order some takeout so that you can all get something to eat?” she asks as you both step aside to wait for your drinks.

 

You nod in agreement. You’ve been pretty hungry ever since you woke up, but getting caffeine was first priority.

 

“So how’s the bar?” you ask. “Everything still running smoothly?”

 

“The bar is running just fine. I have yet to take another drunk imbecile under my wing, in case you were wondering if you’d been replaced.

 

You roll your eyes. “Thanks for everything, though, seriously.”

 

Mattie smiles at you. “You know, you don’t have to keep saying that. I know you’re grateful for everything I did, and you know that I’m also grateful that I met you. I didn’t know it at the time, but I really needed a wild card like you in my life.”

 

A few of your drinks are ready, so Mattie grabs a drink carrier and starts to pile them up.

 

“So, what’s your plan now, ‘Milla?” she asks, putting the last of the drinks into the container.

 

“That implies I’m going to do anything but wait for everything to blow over,” you shrug. “We tried, we failed, and now our lives are completely different. I think we should quit while we’re still alive.”

 

Mattie makes a tsking noise against her teeth, and you prep yourself for her response to you basically giving up.

 

“I know you’re used to running away whenever things get tough with your mother, but I think this time you should stick it out,” she looks down at you like a mother giving her child advice. 

 

“I’m going to do whatever it takes to stay alive,” you respond harshly. “And that’s staying out of my mother’s way.”

 

Mattie brings her hands up in the air as if to surrender. “Okay. I just figured you were going to try and find Hitchcock so you could at least get your powers back. But if you’re going to be happy transforming into animals the rest of your life, I understand why you’re staying out of it.”

 

The rest of your drinks are ready, so you grab them angrily and head out the door, fighting the urge to shift into a predatory animal.

 

Damn, Mattie is right. You really need to find Hitchcock, even if you have no chance against your mother.

 

* * * *

As soon as Carmilla and Matska get back, the tall, dark skinned woman puts the two drink trays on the counter, and the pale, broody woman heads straight for the door.

 

“Where are you going?” you ask from the couch, because you’re still not entirely sure that it’s safe out there, even if the Dean supposedly doesn’t know where you are.

 

“To get some air,” Carmilla pauses at the door, tense.

 

“It still might be dangerous out there, do you want me to—?” you start.

 

“Alone,” she snaps, slamming the door behind her. You have half a mind to go after her, but you think that she would probably rip your head off. The loud noise causes Will to stir, and he sits up quickly once he notices Matska standing by the counter.

 

“Uh, hello?” he asks.

 

“Hello,” Matska makes her way over to him and holds her hand out. “You must be William. I’m Matska, but most people call me Mattie.”

 

“I also go by Will,” he shakes her hand. “Mattie, huh? So you’re the chick that took care of Kitty when she ran away.”

 

Mattie smiles. “Yes. She stayed here with me, in this apartment, for a few months before she went off to Silas.”

 

“Well, it’s great to finally meet you,” he stands up and stretches as Mattie makes her way back to the counter. “And thanks for allowing us to stay the night here.”

 

Mattie waves him off as she grabs her coffee. “Oh, it was no problem. Please, do help yourself to some coffee. And Laura, I got you the hot chocolate you requested.”

 

“Thanks,” you reply as Mattie makes her way over to the couch with both of your drinks. Will stood up and went to grab one for him and Perry, before returning back to his pile of blankets on the floor.

 

“Carmilla made it sound like this apartment was hers,” Will sighed. “I’m sorry if you weren’t expecting us.”

 

“Oh, don’t worry, it’s okay. ‘Milla told me what took place last night and I would have offered up my apartment anyway, knowing what you’ve been through. I was off visiting family and wasn’t supposed to return for a few more days. But, with the weather getting worse, I caught the soonest flight back so that I wouldn’t get stranded,” Mattie says.

 

“Oh, yes, I heard this storm is supposed to be pretty bad,” Perry says, taking a sip of her coffee.

 

“None of you can control the weather, can you?” Mattie laughs.

 

“No, not really,” Will says. “We’re all still kind of in shock about the power switch, honestly.”

 

It _is_ still strange to you, how you can’t feel people’s emotions. You’ve grown so accustomed to it that now it just feels weird that you aren’t being bombarded with people’s feelings. Normally you'd know exactly how stressed Perry is right now, or if the fact that LaFontaine is twitching in their sleep means they’re having a nightmare, and even how Will is coping with last night’s events.

 

But you _don’t_ know. And you’ve been trying to push away how you feel about the fact that you don’t have your original powers anymore. Last night, you were just too exhausted that you didn’t even think of anything, except for the fact that you, Carmilla, and the others are all (relatively) okay.

 

You hear a crack of thunder. Maybe you _should_ join Carmilla in brooding outside in the rain. It could help you clear your thoughts.

 

“Was it raining when you guys got back?” you ask, deciding that you won’t. Going outside would only get you all wet and depressed.

 

Mattie shakes her head. “No, but it looked like it was just about to start.”

 

You guys sit in comfortable silence for a couple of minutes, sipping your warm drinks and checking your phones. So far you hadn’t contacted your father, because you really didn’t want him to be worried about you. You knew that if he had any idea of what was going on, he’d be on his way to come and get you in 3 seconds flat, and as much as you don’t want to be in danger, you need to find the missing powers.

 

“Just so you guys know, I am a power. I have flight and regenerative healing,” Mattie breaks the silence.

 

“If you don’t mind me asking, how quick is your regenerative healing?” Perry asks, intrigued.

 

“Immediately for small injuries,” Mattie answers. “For bigger things like broken bones it takes a few hours. I’ve never lost any limbs or anything, but I’d imagine it would take at least a day for those to regenerate.”

 

“That’s really cool,” you say. “I’m so accident prone I could really use that.”

 

Mattie laughs. “It’s pretty nice. And if you guys wouldn’t mind sharing, who has whose powers?”

 

Will looks up from his phone to respond. “Well, Hitchcock gave me Danny’s super powers. She’s the tall redhead who’s still asleep in the guest bedroom. She had the power to control and manipulate fire and electricity.”

 

Mattie raises her eyebrows, and you figure that she knows _exactly_ how Carmilla got her burn scars. “Interesting.”

 

Perry clears her throat. “I didn’t end up switching powers. I kept my ability to manipulate health and create force fields.”

 

“That’s impressive,” Mattie responds and looks to you.

 

“I have Will’s powers. He could teleport and you have a bit of super strength, right?”

 

Will nods and looks back down to his hands. It looks like he shares Carmilla’s habit of picking at his nails when he’s uncomfortable.

 

“Who ended up with ‘Milla’s powers?” Mattie asks.

 

“That would be Danny,” you respond. “Carm ended up with Kirsch’s power to shape shift, and Kirsch ended up with my powers, which is— _was_ —empathy. I was working on a telekinetic blast before this whole thing happened. And LaFontaine—they, well…”

 

“I don’t have any powers,” they finish, and you glance over to see that they’re awake. You’re not entirely sure how long they’ve been up, but obviously long enough to understand the conversation. “Hitchcock had touched Carmilla—who didn’t have any powers because he’d already transferred hers—before me, so I think he discharged Kirsch’s power to her and didn’t have one to give me.”

 

LaF figured out they didn’t have any powers when everyone was testing to see which one they had. At first it didn’t make any sense—how could they not have a power?

 

It took a bit for you guys to figure out—pretty much the whole walk to Mattie’s apartment—that it was because Hitchcock had already transferred powers to Carmilla and since he hadn’t absorbed Perry’s, there was no power to switch.

 

You have to say; they’re taking it way better than you would have. The fact that you at least have Will’s power—even though it feels off, it doesn’t feel too much like something is _missing_.

 

You’re not sure you could make it through something like that.

 

* * * *

People are screaming and running away from you as you head back to the industrial part of the city.

 

 _Good, I can run as fast as I fucking want without you people in the way,_ you think as you run cross the street, narrowly avoiding getting hit by a car.

 

“Is that a giant black cat?” some kid asks from across the street as his mother is pulling him in the opposite direction you’re going.

 

 _No, you idiot, I’m a panther,_ you want to scream back at them, but you’re already too far away and you need to keep going.

 

Almost as soon as you made it out the front door of Mattie’s apartment complex, you allowed yourself to shift without even thinking about it. Apparently, the animal that you’d been itching to transform into was a black panther. You just went with it because you’re way faster than you would’ve been in human form, and you can’t exactly teleport anymore, so.

 

You’d never admit it to anyone, but you _do_ feel a lot better now that you’ve shifted. You’re much more relaxed, and even though you’d rather get your own powers back—you do miss them immensely—it does feel kind of right to be out of human form.

 

You make it to your destination within twenty minutes. The warehouse is still completely abandoned from when you left it—sometime in between, when Hitchcock made you pass out and when you all woke up, the young man who was at the front desk, took off.

 

Back as a human, you make your way to the lab (you would have stayed as a panther, but you kind of needed hands to open the doors).

 

There’s nothing there but the chair that Hitchcock had been sitting on. He must have grabbed his book before leaving Perry to deal with his aftermath.

 

Damn, you were hoping he’d left it. You suppose you could do some snooping around, then.

 

You enter the main warehouse and see that everything is exactly how you left it. Good. That means Mother is still expecting you all to return home.

 

There were still at least 10 boxes that hadn’t been opened and looked through. So you decide to check them out, in case your mother left you any clue as to her whereabouts.

 

It took you around half an hour to carefully go through about three quarters of the boxes, and you didn’t find anything useful.

 

One of them had a stack of newspapers, which you thought might have some answers, but they were completely irrelevant.

 

You hear the lab door opens behind you, and you spin around, ready to fight. When you see that it _isn’t_ one of your mother’s minions, you huff angrily and go back to your box.

 

“How long did it take before Laura sent you after me?” you ask.

 

“She didn’t,” Danny shrugs. “She told me you’d been gone for over half an hour. I figured you would come back here.”

 

“Explains why she didn’t just teleport here herself,” you say. “Laura doesn’t seem like the type to send you, Jolly Red, especially when she knows our past track record.”

 

“We _could_ change that, you know,” she offers.

 

“First of all: are you offering to make out with me? Second of all: I’m not having a heart to heart with you Pyro—uh, Xena.”

 

“Oh my god,” Danny rolls her eyes. “You can be so immature at times.”

 

You shrug and throw the newspapers aside. “Let me just get through this stuff, to make sure it’s not important, and then I’ll head back. Tell the others I won’t be more than twenty minutes.”

 

“No way,” she shakes her head, “I’m not leaving. If Laura figures out where I found you and didn’t stay, she’ll rip my head off.”  

 

You roll your eyes and open the next box. “I can’t believe you’re afraid of Laura.”

 

“Hey, she can really hold her own,” Danny opens a box of her own. “Besides, I’m not the one that still has feelings for her.”

 

You drop the beakers you had in your hands—damnit, you’re smoother than this, Karnstein. Xena of course takes this as a confirmation.

 

“Ha! Kirsch was right.”

 

“What the frilly hell are you talking about?” you ask, going back to dig through more beakers so she can’t see the blush that’s forming.

 

“Kirsch told me that he’s pretty sure that you have feelings for Laura. I mean, he _does_ have empathic powers now.”

 

“The brainless jock can barely tie his shoes,” you scoff. “Let alone figure out if someone has feelings for someone else.”

 

“Well, he told me this after he asked me if I had feelings for him. I said yes, and after he yelled ‘Sweet!’ he told me that he figured that he was picking up on love, because you also had it for Laura and it was really similar.”

 

“Just because you two wish that you were swapping spit doesn’t mean that I have a crush on Laura. I swear to god if you don’t drop this Danny I’m—”

 

“Oh, this is rich,” she smiles, opening another box. God, you want to punch the smug expression right off her face. “This is blackmail worthy, you know that? Payback for all those times you were and will be a bitch. Oh, come on, just admit your feelings!”

 

“You know what? Fine! I have feelings for Laura, are you happy now?” you snap.

 

Danny’s silent for a couple of seconds. “You know, I’m not sure if you believe me, but I think you two wouldn’t completely suck as a couple.”

 

“Isn’t there sucking involved if you’re in a relationship?” you say before you can stop yourself.

 

“Do you have some sort of mechanism that refuses to let you have a serious conversation?”

 

“I’m capable of having a serious conversation,” you mutter. _Maybe I just don’t want to have it with you_.

 

“Oh yeah? Prove it to me,” Danny sets down the stuff from her last box and turns to face you. “Tell me a secret.”

 

“What, are we in middle school?” you roll your eyes.

 

“You’re just proving my point, Karnstein,” Danny raises an eyebrow, waiting.

 

You bring your hand up to scratch at the base of your neck nervously. “Well what do you want to know?”

 

“How about the fact that I know those scars didn’t come from a match,” Danny says slowly, “So, where did you get them?”

 

“You _had_ to ask that one?” you mutter.

 

Danny waits.

 

“Alright, okay,” you relent, and then go on to tell a very shortened version of your mother’s abuse. You leave out the rest of your life story because, frankly, you and Xena are barely friends, let alone close friends.

 

Although, you suppose you have to consider her a close friend now, as she knows one of your worst secrets.

 

Danny doesn’t pity you, which you appreciate. She also doesn’t try and comfort you or anything, which you _greatly_ appreciate. Nothing would have been more awkward. She simply frowns and runs a hand through her hair.

 

“So, does this mean that you and the Zeta Bro are finally together?” you ask, trying to change the subject. “Because if you two can’t keep your hands off each other, Mattie is going to kick you out of her apartment.”

 

“For the record, we aren’t _technically_ together but—wait!” she calls out as you’re about to open the last box.

 

“What?” you snap, annoyed.

 

“Something feels off about that box. There’s only one object in there, unlike the other ones.”

 

You roll your eyes. You know she could feel the general outline of what was in each box because she can feel the shadows, but it took you quite a while to learn how to interpret how shadows fell around objects. “You sure you know what you’re talking about?”

 

She nods sharply.

 

“Alright, fine then. Back up,” you order. “I’ll open it slowly.”

 

“But what if—”

 

“Danny, back your ass up,” you repeat. She doesn’t argue, and takes around fifty steps backwards, so that she’s almost against the wall. You’re not sure if all of the elements of your power has settled with her (just because she can feel objects in shadows, doesn’t necessarily mean she could manipulate the shadows themselves yet), but you know that she probably feels way more comfortable being closer to the shadows the wall gives off.

 

“I really don’t think this is a good idea,” Danny says as you turn around to open the box up.

 

“I’m not known for my good ideas,” you respond, and open the box.

 

Suddenly you’re on the floor, the world is spinning, there’s a high-pitch ringing in your ears, and _damn._

 

Danny is hovering over you, saying something, but you can’t hear anything but that damn ringing.

 

“….holy shit, Carmilla, are you okay?” you finally hear.

 

You open your mouth to talk and you’re unable to get anything out. In fact, it’s nearly impossible to breathe. You try to sit up, to attempt to get some air into your lungs, but your ribs protest.

 

After about thirty seconds, you’re able to breathe properly again. From what you can tell, nothing seems broken, and other than the sore lungs, nothing else hurts too badly. You don’t think you’re injured.

 

“What the fuck was that?” you finally ask.

 

Danny had apparently, at some point, grabbed your hand. She seems just as surprised as you are, because she immediately retracts it as soon as she looks down. “I’m not sure. Some sort of sonic wave bomb or something?”

 

“Well, that was a blast,” you say, and can’t help but smirk at your own joke.

 

“Oh my god,” Danny rolls her eyes. “You could have died, and you’re making jokes.”

 

“The thing is that I _didn’t_ die, Xena,” you stand up slowly. Yeah, you’re good. “And if you tell anyone about that, I will use your own shadows to suffocate you.”

 

“We both know that’s an empty threat because it’s physically impossible, but fine,” she shrugs. “Come on, let’s go.”

 

You both walk out to Mattie’s car and hop in. How the redhead was able to borrow it without anyone finding out, you have no idea. Both of you are silent while she starts the car; you have to admit it’s not completely awkward.

 

You try to ignore the unusual burning in your lungs on the way back.

 

Besides, you could _really_ use some food.

 

“Hey, Xena, how do tacos sound?”

 

She rolls her eyes, but a couple of minutes later she stops at a Mexican restaurant so that you can both get food for everyone.

 

The tacos were probably the best you’d ever tasted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Carmilla really loves tacos, apparently (they're pretty great). And we finally know who everyone's powers are. 
> 
> Poor LaF. They don't deserve this. 
> 
>  
> 
> NEW list of everyone's powers:
> 
> Carmilla- shape shifting, specifically animals
> 
> Laura- teleportion, enhanced strength
> 
> Danny- shadow manipulation, shadow portal creation
> 
> Will- fire/electricity manipulation
> 
> Kirsch- empathy/empathy clairaudience, emotional manipulation, telekinetic blast
> 
> LaF- none (sorry, LaF)
> 
> Perry- health manipulation, force field generation
> 
> Hitchcock- power transferal
> 
> Elsie- enhanced strength
> 
> Mattie- flight, regenerative healing
> 
> Every single power that I use I refer to http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Superpower_Wiki .
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks!


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A lot of adjusting and sleeping in this chapter, apparently. Another Brotp is formed!
> 
> Laura's POV, to Carmilla's, back to Laura's.

You don’t really ask where Danny found Carmilla. Honestly, you hadn’t even noticed that the redhead was gone as well. All you know is that they brought home food, which was _glorious_.

 

Once you're all gathered to eat, Mattie insists that most of you should try to get some more rest before heading out to check on her bar. As much as you want to argue, looking around at everyone, you can see that she has a point.

 

Especially LaF and Carmilla. You’re not entirely sure, but you think both of them had a pretty rough time sleeping. Of course, you can’t tell what the dreams were about anymore, but you know both of them good enough to know they weren’t pleasant.

 

You really wish you had your powers back.

 

Danny and Kirsch insist that Perry and LaFontaine take the guest bedroom, probably more for LaF’s sake than Perry’s. After a bit of argument, they relent and both of the redheads finally retreat to get some sleep. Will agrees to take the chair, which LaF had previously taken; he was really the only one, besides you or Carmilla, who could fit on it comfortably. Kirsch is about to take the floor, but Danny stops him and says she’d rather take the floor than the couch. Kirsch doesn’t even put up an argument with that one.

 

“Is it just me, or have they been _too_ civil to each other lately?” you whisper to Carmilla, who’s next to you on the couch and reading one of Mattie’s books.

 

There’s no snarky response, and you’re pretty sure she didn’t hear you (or any of the other conversations that had been going on). You nudge her lightly and she looks up at you, confused at the interruption.

 

“Are you okay?” you ask.

 

“Of course,” she replies, going immediately back to her book. You don’t believe her in the slightest, but you don’t want to push her over the edge in front of the others.

 

“Alright, bros, off the couch,” Kirsch says from the floor. He, Danny, and LaFontaine had been sitting down on the mass of blankets to eat. “I’m tired.”

 

You stand up and notice that Carmilla hasn’t moved. You nudge her again, this time with your foot, and she stares up at you and raises an eyebrow.

 

“What?”

 

“Come on, Kirsch wants to sleep and you’re on his bed,” you reach out to help her up, but she doesn’t take it. She stands up and makes her way back to Mattie’s room without another word or gesture.

 

“What’s up with Bagheera?” Danny asks. “I mean, other than the usual.”

 

You glance towards the hallway and shrug. “Last night wasn’t easy for anyone, but…”

 

“Coming face to face with our mother’s right hand man would’ve shaken Kitty up, even if he hadn’t touched her powers,” Will sighs.

 

“What do you mean?” Danny asks.

 

“Well, several reasons. I think the main one is that he killed someone really close to her in a very not-so-nice way.”

 

The room falls silent, and you figure Danny is begging to ask how exactly they got killed, but thankfully she holds her tongue. She looks over at you like she’ll probably try and find out later, though, and that’s when you realize you’re better at reading her without your powers than you thought. You suppose it’s because you’ve been friends for so long.

 

“Well, on that happy note, I’m going to try and fall back asleep,” you head to the hallway. “Please wake me up if anything significant happens.”

 

Carmilla is sitting on the edge of the bed, still apparently engrossed in her book. You silently make your way onto the bed and lie back down, hoping that Carmilla will follow because she really looks like she could use some rest.

 

“Good night—well, uh, morning I guess,” you say to get her attention.

 

“Night,” she mutters. You sigh and decide it’s no use; she didn’t even look up. You roll over on your side, facing away from her to attempt to ignore her, and to try to get some sleep.

 

After ten minutes she hasn’t moved except to turn the page. You’re still exhausted, but apparently you’re so worried about Carmilla that your body refuses to let you fall asleep.

 

You sit up and of course the brunette doesn’t even look your way. And, just like you thought, she is still huddled over the book in the exact same way she was when you lied down.

 

“Carmilla, shouldn’t you at least try to sleep?” you ask, and she turns around, startled.

 

“Uh, yeah, in a minute,” she says, not making eye contact and going back to the damn book.

 

You frown and crawl over to her, still wrapped up in some of the covers, and sit next to her. This is the first time you notice that the book she’s reading is in a different language.

 

“I didn’t know you knew German,” you say, and Carmilla snaps the book shut rather harshly.

 

“Yeah,” she shrugs, standing up. “I was born in Austria.”

 

“Carm,” you reach out to touch her but stop, knowing she’ll probably just shrug you off anyways. “Please. Get some rest.”

 

She sighs and runs a hand through her hair. “Fine.” She sets her book down on the dresser, turns off the light before heading to the window and closing the blinds. Because the storm is still raging outside the room becomes pretty dark, even though it’s late afternoon.

 

Despite her not wanting to rest, Carmilla falls asleep in about fifteen minutes. You stay conscious long enough to ensure she’s actually asleep underneath her pile of blankets.

 

* * * *

You wake up around 10pm and can’t go back to sleep. Laura is still snoring quietly beside you, so you carefully remove yourself from the bed and make your way to the kitchen to get a cold glass of water. Everyone else is still fast asleep as well; Kirsch is sprawled out on the couch, half of his body hanging off, and Danny seems to be imitating his starfish position on top of the blankets on the floor. 

 

It’s gross, how perfect they are for each other.

 

You’re still restless after you finish your water, and you decide to head downstairs to get some cool, fresh (well, sort of, you are in a city) air. You grab one of Mattie’s jackets hanging by the doorway and exit as quietly as you can.

 

You weren’t expecting LaFontaine to be sitting on the front steps. You make as much noise as you can when you head towards them, hoping to break them out of their thoughts and not startle them.

 

Luckily they do look up at you before you stand next to them. “Couldn’t sleep either?” they raise their eyebrows.

 

You nod. “Want to go for a walk?”

 

“Does this walk involve a specific destination?” they ask, but they’re still standing up before they finish getting the words out.

 

You shrug, even though you had a plan the moment you saw them sitting there. You check Mattie’s jacket pocket and, yep, she left money in there for you. It’s like she knew this was going to happen (not that the middle of the night walks were common while you were staying with her or anything).

 

The familiar walk was taken in silence. When you get to the corner store, which is a couple of blocks away from the apartment, you open the door for them and follow them inside.

 

“Get anything you want,” you tell them, heading to the back and getting a six-pack of your favorite beer. They grab a bag of chips and follow you up to the register, where you also ask for a pack of cigarettes.

 

When you get back to the apartment building, you head straight for the elevators, LaFontaine in tow (though they look at you confused). You press the button for the top floor and they seem to comprehend what you’re doing.

 

Once you’re finally out on the roof, you feel much better. Even though you can’t exactly see the stars, you’re still far away enough from the ground that you can easily ignore the traffic and other city noises. You crack open two of the beers and hand one to LaFontaine; they glance at you and nod before both of you take very large gulps.

 

“You know, I think there’s only room for one of us in the group to be broody,” you say, taking another drink. “And I’ve had that position since the very beginning.”

 

They snort and roll their eyes, but the ghost of a smile is on their lips. “Sorry, it’s just…”

 

“I know,” you shrug and lie down on the rooftop. “Look, if you promise not to tell anyone, I’ll tell you something I haven’t told anyone." 

 

They lie back as well and look at you curiously. You guess they realize that you don’t like to share things. “You’ve been doing a lot of that lately, haven’t you? Sharing your secrets.”

 

You sigh. “Yeah, tell me about it Gingersnap. But really, I kind of know what you’re going through.”

 

They raise their eyebrow at you, telling you they need more of an explanation than that.

 

“Hitchcock kind of hit me with the whole _I’m going to take your powers away_ thing when I was like 10,” you say and take another drink. “He did it right before he took off on some research trip, so I didn’t have my powers for a few months. It was punishment for me accidentally walking into his lab while he was working. Apparently he’d given them to some non-power at the lab as a placeholder, so at least he was able to give them back to me. My mother actually forced him to give them back as soon as he returned, believe it or not. I had no idea why she did it; up until that point I thought she wished that I had no powers at all.”

 

LaFontaine frowns. “That’s terrible. You were only ten; that must’ve been crushing to live without them, even if it was only for a few months. I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.”

 

You shrug. “Look, I’m not looking for sympathy. All I’m saying is, I can help you adjust if you want. I know it was a while ago, but you know, something like that is hard to forget.”

 

They sit up on their elbow and look at you before taking a sip of their beer. “It’s just like a part of me is missing. Like—”

 

“—Something is so off that you can’t look at the world the same way you used to,” you finish. “That even something as simple as walking seems so different than before. That your senses are now dulled and you’re not connected to the world the way you were. That _you just want to pull your fucking hair out because life doesn’t seem worth living, now that you lost something that was so important and a part of you_.”

 

LaFontaine runs a hand through their hair, pushing it out of their face, and nods. “Exactly. Way too broody for my taste. So how do you get past that?”

 

You finish your beer. “Honestly, you don’t. It sort of dulls, the longer you go without them, but it never goes away. You just have to find something else to live for, something that can almost fill that void.”

 

“Let me guess; you turned to angsty punk rock music?” they ask.

 

You roll your eyes. “Among other things. That summer I started to read and get lost in the stories of others. I even acted in a play, if you could believe it or not. If I could pretend I was someone else, I didn’t have to deal with Carmilla’s problems.”

 

They smile, and you know they want to ask what you acted in. “You know, I feel like you acting is the secret you’d kill me over, not the losing your powers secret.”

 

You pull out the pack of cigarettes from your pocket and take one out. “Yeah, well, just don’t forget that I _do_ have powers now and even if they aren’t mine, I will not hesitate to use them to hurt you. Got a light?”

 

LaFontaine nods and pulls their keys out of their pocket, revealing a small lighter on a keychain. They hand it to you so you can light the cigarette and once you’re done, you offer one to them. They take it and light it before slipping the keys back in their pocket.

 

“So, just because I basically told you to go and dissolve your problems with science, doesn’t mean I told you to go blow shit up,” you exhale. “I know you’ve always been pretty good at that.”

 

They laugh. “But I figured that’s exactly what you meant when you told me to drown my sorrows in experiments.”  

 

“Well, I don’t want Easy-Bake breathing down my neck, so I said no such thing,” you shrug, smiling. You flick some ashes onto the ground beside you. “But, honestly, you should really go blow some shit up. I’m sure it’ll be therapeutic.”

 

LaF rolls their eyes and takes a drag of their cigarette. “I’ll be sure to invite you if I’m ever working with dangerous chemicals.”

 

“That’s all I ask,” you say, taking a puff of your cig.

 

You both lie there in comfortable silence for a few minutes. You break it when you ask them if they’d like another beer. Instead of a beer, they go for another cigarette.

 

“So, do you have a plan?” they ask after a bit. “Or was it more along the lines of ‘let’s just stick this out so we don’t die’? I’d definitely go for that plan.”

 

Well, at least LaFontaine is on your level.

 

“Exactly. I’m hoping when after everything blows over, I can find Hitchcock and somehow force him to give us our powers back. Because as far as I know, this thing is permanent, and the only way to get our powers back is for him to switch them back himself. Unless you happen to know anyone else with the ability to absorb and replace people’s powers?”

 

They shake their head. “Sorry, dude, if I did, I wouldn’t be up here brooding with you. But, I’ll do anything I can to help you find the son of a bitch.”

 

“I wouldn’t expect any less,” you say, finishing your second beer. You grab another one and swear that this will be your last one—Laura will absolutely kill you if you wake up really hungover tomorrow.

 

You both sit in more silence while you finish your third beer. You’re about to suggest that you both head inside when they ask another question.

 

“So, what play _did_ you perform in, Karnstein?”

 

Fuck it. You pick up another beer and say, “Ask me again after I finish this,” because even if you refuse to answer that now, if you get drunk enough they just might get it out of you.

 

* * * *

You know that Carmilla’s not in bed asleep, but you couldn’t bring yourself to wake up enough to go and check to see if she was still somewhere in the apartment.

 

When she opens the door slowly fifteen minutes later, you pretend to be asleep whilst she crawls into bed and clumsily grabs the blankets to drape over herself. She’s snoring about five minutes after that, and this is probably the fastest she’s ever fallen asleep, other than that time Perry healed her.

 

You can smell the alcohol on her, even from across the bed, and you slowly get up and head to the kitchen to get her a glass of water for when she wakes up.

 

Once you’re back in bed you fall asleep in about fifteen minutes, partly glad that Carmilla is drunk because that means she’ll sleep soundlessly until morning.

 

* * * *

Your phone buzzing beneath your pillow wakes you up, and you check the time to see it’s almost 9am. You sit up to see Carmilla is still fast asleep in her bundle of blankets besides you; she’s in the exact same position she fell asleep in, at whatever time it was last night.

 

The message on your phone is from your dad, asking how your midterms are going. You feel a pang in your gut as you think of how to reply to him.

 

How could your life have been so different three weeks ago?

 

You decide to just reply that you’re pretty sure you got a good grade on your presentation project, so that you wouldn’t have to lie.

 

After hitting send, you get out of bed; you’re well rested and you’re not sure you could fall back asleep after that. You quietly head into the living room to find that it smells like bacon and eggs and there’s a note on the kitchen counter:

 

_Made breakfast for everyone. The coffee is in the pot. I’ll be sleeping in the apartment next door with Elsie, in Room 305, if you need me. Please don’t feel bad about taking over my apartment—I can’t fathom what you guys have gone through._

 

_I hope you are all feeling better today. Although, maybe not Carmilla, as I found my jacket with significantly less money last night, which means it was probably spent on alcohol. There’s some aspirin in the bathroom if she or anyone else needs it._

_~Mattie_

You see that there are some eggs, bacon, and toast left out for you, so you help yourself to a plate. Just when you’re about to start eating in the kitchen (Danny, Kirsch, and Will are all still fast asleep) you hear a door open and close in the hallway.

 

Perry appears a few seconds later and whispers, “Good morning, Laura.”

 

You nod, as you have a mouthful of egg, and motion for her to get some breakfast as well. She pours herself a cup of coffee first, and then grabs some food, find a place next to you before digging in. You both finish your food in silence before Perry speaks up again.

 

“So, I’m thinking that if we’re planning to stay here a while, we should get some of our clothes and things,” Perry says.

 

You nod. “We’ve been in these clothes for more than a day now.”

 

“The question is: if there really are people at our places, how do we get inside?” Perry asks, taking a sip of her coffee.

 

“If only we knew someone who know how to teleport,” Will says from the chair. Both of you look his way as he slowly stretches and stands up. Neither of you had realized that he had woken up.

 

“Well…” you trail off. “I don’t exactly know how to do it.”

 

Will shrugs as he makes his way over to the kitchen. “It won’t take that long for you to learn.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, okay, I really /do/ promise a montage next chapter (well, as much of a montage as you can do with writing) of everyone really learning their new powers. The new interactions will totally be worth the wait (I hope). 
> 
> Everyone just needs to make room for LaF because they deserve happiness and they might not get it from me, okay?
> 
>  
> 
> List of everyone's powers:
> 
> Carmilla- shape shifting, specifically animals
> 
> Laura- teleportion, enhanced strength
> 
> Danny- shadow manipulation, shadow portal creation
> 
> Will- fire/electricity manipulation
> 
> Kirsch- empathy/empathy clairaudience, emotional manipulation, telekinetic blast
> 
> LaF- none (sorry, LaF)
> 
> Perry- health manipulation, force field generation
> 
> Hitchcock- power transferal
> 
> Elsie- enhanced strength
> 
> Mattie- flight, regenerative healing
> 
> Every single power that I use I refer to http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Superpower_Wiki .
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks!


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here's the montage (if that's what you decide to call it) that I promised!
> 
> It all takes place within a couple of days, fyi.
> 
> I'm hoping this all makes sense because it jumps around from person to person, but we finally get (probably for this chapter exclusively) other POV's besides Carmilla and Laura!
> 
> POV's go from Danny, to Laura, to Will, to Kirsch, and lastly to Carmilla.

  **Danny and Will:**

 

Carmilla found another place similar to the Arena on this side of town, which is convenient. The Arena 2.0, is what LaF ended up naming it. It’s not as fancy as the Arena; the six rooms they have here have fewer options you can switch between, but luckily one of them will make the room with metal. Melting metal isn’t anything you’re going to teach him how to do today, so for all intents and purposes, the room is fireproof.

 

“I’m pretty fired up about this, you know,” Will smiles as he leans over to stretch, and _god_ , he’s so much like his sister sometimes it makes you cringe.

 

“Keep that up and you won’t have a teacher,” you respond, and he raises an eyebrow at you but nods in understanding. “So I’m assuming you haven’t actually tried to use your powers yet because nothing has been set on fire.”

 

Will straightens up and nods.

 

“Okay. So the first thing we’re going to do then, is try and set something on fire,” you say as you jog to the corner of the room, pick up a stick from the box of things you’d brought and hold it up for him to see. “We’re going to start with something that’s really flammable.”

 

You head back over to him and place the stick on the ground in front of him. You both sit down around it, and you nod for him to just go for it. He stares at it, trying to get it to light. You observe how he tries to do it before you give him advice.

 

“Don’t just will the thing to catch on fire,” you say. “The power is strongly influenced by your emotions. It’s not all about anger, contrary to what you might believe. It’s connected to all of your emotions. Anger is the easiest to use to manipulate the fire and create it, but it’s definitely affected by other emotions too. I doubt that you aren’t the ball of rage Carmilla is, so just access an easy emotion other than anger and see what happens.”

 

You think he’s going to say something about your comment on his sister, but he stays silent. He goes back to staring at the stick and it takes a good five minutes before it starts to smoke. Will grunts in concentration and fifteen seconds later there’s one small flame.

 

“That took a lot more time than I was expecting,” he sighs.

 

“It takes a lot to create a flame from nothing,” you nod. “An object is harder to light than producing flames on your hands like you’ve seen me do, which is why I wanted to start with that.”

 

“Starting with the harder stuff seems like such good logic,” Will groans as he leans back on his elbows.

 

You roll your eyes. “It’s how I was taught, so we’re going to do it that way.”

 

“Someone taught you how to use your powers?” Will furrows his brow, genuinely confused. The flame flickers, threatening to extinguish.

 

You’re taken aback by his confusion. “Yeah. You didn’t have a mentor that helped you?”

 

Will snorts. “No. We weren’t allowed to use our powers. Mother hated that we had them at all.”

 

Your mind wanders back to the conversation you had back in the Cafeteria, before all of this started. It seemed like such a long time ago, even though it was only a couple weeks. Laura had mentioned something about Carmilla being punished a few times, but you couldn’t exactly recall what she said it had been for. To be honest, you’d been distracted by trying to figure out your feelings for Kirsch, as well as trying to make sure that the suicide mission was as safe as possible.

 

“So you taught yourself?” you ask.

 

“Yeah,” he mutters. The fire quickly grows so that it’s several flames. Will doesn’t seem to notice, as he’s lost in thought. “Something like that.”

 

You hope that Will opens up. Maybe if you let him know that you’re not just going to berate him because he’s a power. Maybe—oh god you can’t believe you’re actually thinking this—if you try to get him to be your friend.

 

Just because Carmilla’s closed off about everything she’s been through, doesn’t mean that her brother has to be. You know from experience that bottling things up isn’t good.

 

You don’t want anything to be set on fire because of emotional unstableness. Your mind jumps back to middle school, when you were being picked on—for both your height and being a power—and you refused to tell anyone and just let your anger fester inside you. You’d been told you were lucky you’d only set your own treehouse on fire, rather than a public building with people in it.

 

From then on, you realized your emotions _were_ the most important link to your power.

 

Will might not _seem_ as damaged as his sister, but you can never tell with these sorts of things. You have no idea what exactly he’s gone through either. You seriously can’t judge a book by its cover.

 

Besides, you’re not heartless. Will and Carmilla may be annoying, but they’ve gone through some serious shit, most of which you don’t know about. They deserve happiness, and the first step is to open up and let other people in so that they’re not alone.

 

You may not be his best bro Kirsch, but you could at least be another great friend who’s always there for him.

 

Not that it’ll happen, but you’re willing to be that friend for Carmilla too.

 

“Anyways,” you smile, picking up the stick and extinguishing the fire. Will is pulled from his thoughts as well. “Let’s try and get you to combust things faster than five minutes.”

 

 

* * * *

 

 

**Laura and Kirsch:**

 

“I have to say, Hollis, your powers are pretty different from mine,” Kirsch takes a sip of his soda. You’re both sitting on the couch of Mattie’s apartment. Everyone else is out (LaF and Perry went with Mattie to go grocery shopping, Danny is helping train Will and you have no idea where Carmilla is).

 

You nod, smiling.

 

“I know that smile is as fake as Carmilla’s apathy towards everything,” he says, giving you an understanding smile with some guilt underneath it. “I never realized how you _literally_ feel everything, bro.”

 

“It definitely takes some getting used to,” you respond as you reach forward to grab your hot chocolate. “Luckily my mom had a similar power so she sort of helped me adjust.”

 

Whether it be because of the new empathy powers or not, Kirsch doesn’t push the subject of your mom. Everyone in your group of friends knows by now that your mom died when you were thirteen. It’s a tragic story that you haven’t really told anyone, although you might owe Carmilla the story since she shared her tragic backstory with you.

 

Perhaps it will be less tragic if you use sock puppets to tell your story.

 

“So, the longer you have the powers, the easier it will be to only focus on certain empathy auras,” you continue, to stop the depressing thoughts from taking over. You don’t have time for a meltdown right now; you have kidnapped powers to save. “I’m not entirely sure how to explain it, but you really only feel the emotions that people project out. They’re the ones that are really strong. They’re basically throwing them at you, although they don’t know they’re doing it of course. A physical touch from skin to skin will increase your ability to read them without them having to project their emotions. The more you read someone the easier it is to connect with their emotions.”

 

“Okay, but how do you keep all of it in check without going batshit crazy?” Kirsch asks seriously. “There’s been a couple of times I’ve had to leave the room, and that was only when there was, like, four of you in there.”

 

“It takes practice learning how to block out all of the aura’s until you want to focus on one specifically. This apartment probably hasn’t been the best place to start because of all that’s happened within the last couple of weeks. We’re all stressed, worried, and the fact that we all switched powers makes us all emotional messes, so we’re throwing our feelings out at you without realizing it. In public places, in general, people won’t _really_ project their emotions at you, unless they’re really strong. Of course, I can try and teach you how to block out those random people, but I feel like we should just start on blocking people you already have a connection with,” you explain.

 

“Yeah, totally,” Kirsch nods enthusiastically. “I mean, the walls _sort_ of help, but not really.”

 

You sigh, smiling. “Just be grateful you didn’t have to deal with high school.”

 

“That must’ve been awful,” he sets his soda down on the coffee table.

 

You shrug. “I was also a hormonal mess too, though, so it wasn’t as bad as you think. But anyways…”

 

You’ve both been sitting on the couch for a couple of hours, when Mattie, Perry, and LaF return from getting groceries. It’s been a while since Danny and Will left; you really hope they haven’t harmed each other (just because Danny tends to not get along with either of the siblings).

 

“How goes it?” LaF asks, taking a seat on the chair, Perry hovering behind them. “Have you determined Laura’s love for Carmilla yet?”

 

You’re sipping on the remnants of your (now cold) hot chocolate and you nearly choke on it. Mattie also freezes from putting some beers in the fridge and turns to face the living room.

 

“LaFontaine!” Perry scolds, tapping them on the shoulder.

 

They shrug, unfazed. “I’m just stating the obvious. You should go for it, L. Ask her out on a _real_ date!”

 

“I doubt now would be an appropriate time,” you say, not entirely liking the fact that everyone in the room is staring at you.

 

“What better time than when we’re all sitting around hiding from danger?” LaF wiggles their eyebrows. “Perfect time for romance, if you ask me.”

 

You’re trying to come up with a valid excuse. I mean, you never really talked about whether lunch was an actual date or not. Friends have lunch dates all the time. But you know you need a better excuse other than: _I doubt Carmilla's actually into me like I'm into her._

 

“Carmilla’s never going to ask you out, you know,” Mattie says from the kitchen. “She’d never think someone like you could possibly like her back.”

 

Your stomach plummets for a second until you realize—“Wait, like me _back_?”

 

“Oh, hon, seriously?” Mattie walks into the living room and looks around. “Are you the only one who doesn’t realize she’s head over heels for you? That is so cliché.”

 

Your mind is still reeling, ignoring whatever LaF says to Mattie. They both laugh, though.

 

“Wait, Carm has a—I mean how can she—what? ” you say. Why can’t you properly form the question?

 

“I told you,” LaF whispers to Mattie, who is smirking (does _everyone_ Carmilla comes into contact with smirk like that?). Perry frowns disapprovingly at LaFontaine, and they don’t continue whatever they were going to say.

 

“Carmilla has it bad for you, kid,” Mattie nods to Kirsch. “I’m sure he can confirm it.”

 

You turn to Kirsch, who suddenly looks pretty uncomfortable. “I thought you said never to meddle with people’s—”

 

“Kirsch! Please,” you give him your best puppy eyes, and you suppose it works. You _really_ wish you had your empathy back.

 

“Bro, if the fact that you’re like, the only person she doesn’t seem to want to murder doesn’t clue you in, then _yes_ , Carm-sexy likes you.”

 

 

* * * *

 

 

**Will and Laura:**

 

Laura suddenly appears ten feet away from you on the sprung floor. You think Laura’s grateful that the Arena 2.0 (LaF came up with the name, not you) has a setting where everything in the room is soft, because landing on a hard tile floor wouldn’t have been comfortable.

 

“You need to relax, Laura,” you say as you run over to her and help her up. She had collapsed on her hands and knees as soon as she landed, completely out of breath.

 

“I just—is it always crushing like that?” she frowns and takes a few steps away from you, trying to catch her breath.

 

You shrug. “It’s probably going to be uncomfortable at first, but it’s better if you _relax_ , like I’ve been telling you to do the last few times.”

 

“I’m trying!” Laura sits back down, exasperated. “It’s not exactly easy when your molecules _are moving at the speed of light_. How the hell do they not run into anything? Or take up any space? Or…”

 

You realize now you shouldn’t have tried to explain to her how the teleporting works—she’s just freaking out about it. You’d thought it would be helpful, but instead she’s just overthinking the whole thing.

 

“Laura,” you say, and she stops her rant. You hadn’t even heard all of it, to be completely honest. “Just teleport. Don’t think about anything but where you’re going. Remember, you can only flash step right now.”

 

“What’s that again?” Laura asks, and you bite back your annoyance.

 

“You can only go about fifty feet or so,” you answer. “Now, concentrate on a point in front of you and—” She’s suddenly not beside you anymore, and instead ten feet in front of you. “—teleport already.”

 

She turns to face you, proud she didn’t get thrown off her feet. “Sweet!”

 

You can’t help but smile. “Now, do it again.”

 

The tiny journalism student faces you and teleports right in front of you. You glance down and raise an eyebrow at her.

 

“Oh, crap! Sorry!” she steps off of your foot, but instantly enwraps you in a hug. “Will, I did it! Thank you!”

 

“Yeah, well, we still have a lot more to cover. If you plan on going against my mother you’re going to have to be good at it.”

 

Laura gives you a look that you can’t quite place. “Carmilla said we aren’t doing anything else but lay low.”

 

You sigh and bring your hand up to scratch the back of your neck. “Yeah. But I can’t get behind my sister on the stay out of trouble plan. I know it’s stupid to try and stop my mother, but she’s caused enough destruction and pain; I can’t help but want to try. I may not know you very well, but you _are_ the one that rallied the troupes to begin with. I think you don’t want to argue with my sister because you don’t want to upset her. I don’t think you agree with her, though. If we convince the others she’ll have no choice but to help us. We can finish this up and then go for coffee and discuss a plan.”

 

Laura gives you a soft smile, and you can see her brain already whirring with ideas. “So, how do I teleport _more_ than fifty feet?”

 

* * * *

 

 

**Kirsch and Carmilla:**

“So, I guess you like to turn into anything in the cat family,” you say as soon as the door slides shut behind you. You head over to the controls and turn it until you find the setting that dims the lighting. You spin it, making the room less bright. When you turn around you find Carmilla glaring at you. “What? You think I don’t notice that you keep disappearing at night and go around the city as a giant panther?”

 

“No one else seems to,” Carmilla shrugs. “Anyways, what’s the point of this? I know how to shapeshift.”

 

“Well, then shift into something that isn’t a cat,” you say and motion for her to demonstrate.

 

She rolls her eyes. “This is ridiculous.”

 

“Not as ridiculous as you avoiding shifting,” you point out, and _man_ , if looks could kill you’d be six feet under.

 

“I don’t have to prove myself to a brainless Zeta,” she waves you off.

 

“I thought we were past insulting me,” you respond. You know she’s nervous and the harsh words are a reflex, but still. You get enough shit for being a Zeta from everyone else.

 

At least Danny has backed off ever since you admitted having feelings for each other.  You wish she were here, because even if the chicks hated each other, Carmilla would be more likely to listen.

 

Plus, having Danny near you made you more comfortable, no matter what the situation.

 

“Whatever,” Carmilla says, but she sounds sorry. You’re pretty sure this is as close to an apology as you’re going to get, so you decide to move on.

 

“Now, clearly the feline family is a natural shift for you. For me it was canines. Practicing other animals is going to be weird because, you can’t _exactly_ screw up the shift itself, it’s more, like, you don’t know how to control the body you turn into as well. It’s like, you’re super wasted, but without the fun part. So, I’d recommend turning into another animal and just trying to walk around in it’s skin for a bit, get a feel for it.”

 

Carmilla looks like she has a retort, but it stalls on her tongue. She’s annoyed for being here, but you’re thankful that she is. Your power isn’t as simple as most people think.

 

She turns away from you and preps to jump up in the air; at that moment you know she’s planning on turning into something with wings. You know you don’t have time to correct her, plus she was mean to you earlier, so you just let her continue.

 

Carmilla jumps straight up and turns into a bat. Her little wings flap as quickly as they can, but it’s no use, she starts to fall anyways. You sprint towards her, reaching out to catch her.

 

She clicks and screeches at you, once you have a hold of the bottom half of her tiny torso. You laugh as she wiggles around and tries to escape, but you have a tight grip on her.

 

“Hey, hey, hey! Calm down!” you say, but it’s no use. Carmilla is freaking out, probably because she can’t see. She’s definitely afraid. “You literally picked one of the hardest animals to shift into, you know? Flying creatures are hard, dude. You can’t just jump in the air and catch yourself; you have to run and leap into the air so you have momentum. But we should start with something different. Try a monkey or something.”

 

Carmilla stops struggling, and, even though she’s a bat, she still manages to glare at you. The fear fades into annoyance.

 

“Monkeys are cool, okay! Now, I’m going to set you down, and you’re going to shift back so you can try something else,” you say as you slowly bend down to place her on the ground. With one last screech she rolls around on her stomach and crawls a few feet before shifting back into human form. She sits up and brings her hands to her face, something you’ve come to realize she does when she’s nervous or uncomfortable. You lean down so you’re closer to her.

 

“This is fucking stupid,” she bites out angrily. “Fucking bullshit.”

 

You purse your lips and nod. “Well, duh. But you’re going to deal with it like everything else you’ve gone through that’s complete and utter bullshit.”

 

Carmilla looks up at you, but it isn’t a harsh look like you were expecting. She’s confused by your response, although her expression is really good at hiding it.

 

“I don’t need a pep talk from you too, puppy,” she says and pulls herself up.

 

You shrug, standing up as well. “You really only need it from one other person, right?”

 

Now, she _does_ look confused.

 

“Little L may not have empathy powers anymore, but she’s still probably the one who can help you out the most. I’m not sure why you’re pushing her away, but you’re both miserable because of it. You should talk to her.”

 

Carmilla rolls her eyes, but you think she’s seriously considering your advice. She turns away from you and shifts into, what you think is, a black ebony leaf monkey.

 

“Excellent!” you smile as she hops around to get a feel for her new form. You head back to the thermostat and spin it until the jungle setting is up. You press the button and turn around to see her in the middle of the room, staring at you.

 

“Go on!” you motion to the trees. “You have to try it out if you want to become comfortable.”

 

She sighs—which is pretty funny, because she’s a tiny ass monkey—before turning around and scrambling up a tree clumsily.

 

About ten minutes later, she’s got the hang (ha!) of it and decides to just hang upside down on one of the vines that’s connected to a branch about ten feet up in the air. You walk underneath her and she looks down at you curiously.

 

“You know, you were wrong earlier,” you look directly up at her. “Laura did notice you disappearing. She’s really worried about you. She’s trying really hard not to show it, but of course I can tell. You should really let her back in; you know she can help.”

 

Carmilla loosens her grip on the vine, sliding down towards you. Suddenly she’s at your face level, still upside down. She reaches out quickly, and you prepare yourself for the hit that’s surely coming.

 

You feel a little tap on the nose, and you open your eyes to see that Carmilla’s monkey hand is still in front of your face.

 

You’re pretty sure that was her way of saying thanks, so you smile back and say, “No problem.”

 

 

* * * *

 

 

**Carmilla and Danny:**

 

You smirk as Xena once again fails to properly hover in place. Her crouched body and the shadow shards she’d pulled underneath her are both shaking like a leaf (and she’s only about two feet off the ground). 

 

“Don’t say a damn word,” she spits out, struggling to focus.

 

“A damn word?” you ask, and Danny gets so angry she loses her concentration and falls.

 

“Carmilla, I swear to god,” she sighs, standing up. “You’re the least helpful person ever.”

 

“That’s me,” you agree, sitting down and pulling out a book from your bag. “Now, try it again.”

 

“You’re seriously not about to read, when you’re supposed to be teaching me how to use your powers,” Danny says, frustrated.

 

“They’re your powers now,” you shrug. “And, I already told you what to do. Try it again.”

 

Suddenly the book is slapped out of your hands with shadows and you look up to see Danny smirking at you.

 

“Congrats, you can slap a book,” you roll your eyes and go to grab it. Before you can reach it, however, it’s pushed across the room by another shadow. You look over to see Danny is pretty satisfied. You decide to not rise to the bait; you know she’s just itching to fight you. “Now try and hover again.”

 

She pulls two shadows from the corners of the room directly in front of her, and hops onto them. This time she makes it about a minute before she falls.

 

“Now, try it moving,” you say, trying not to sound as bored as you are. Danny notices.

 

“Sorry this is all so inconvenient for you,” she rolls her eyes as she pulls the shadows to try again.

 

You ignore her and pull another book out of your bag (you were close to finishing the other book anyways). You don’t see the look on her face, but you can feel her glaring at you. She hovers towards you and you look up just in time to see her land on the ground and lean over to reach for your book.

 

“Can I help you?” you ask, moving the book behind you so she can’t reach it.

 

“Yeah, you could stop acting like a child for two seconds and actually help me with your powers,” Danny answers.

 

“They’re _your_ damn powers now,” you stand up, because she is _way_ too close to you and you need some space. “You can figure it out just like I did.”

 

Danny frowns at you. “We don’t exactly have time for that.”

 

“What are you talking about? You’re going to have those powers for the rest of your life, you have plenty of time,” you grumble, grabbing your bag and heading towards the other side of the room to collect your book.

 

Danny laughs coldly, “Wow, you really have been off in your own world, haven’t you?”

 

You spin around. “What the creeping hell are you talking about?”

 

“I’m talking about Laura, Will, and LaFontaine. They’re clearly conspiring to stop your mother,” Danny rolls her eyes. “I’m pretty sure Laura and Will are heading it, but you know that if they ask me, I’m going to go with them because there’s no way I can just walk away from it knowing that they’re going to be in danger.”

 

“Are you fucking serious?” you ask, snatching your book off the ground and heading towards the door. Danny blocks you, however. “Get out of the way.”

 

She shakes her head. “No. You agreed to teach me, and that’s what you’re going to do.”

 

“You think you can stop me?” you say, pushing her out of the way. Suddenly you’re encased in a clumsy arrangement of shadow fragments, and you just laugh. You drop your bag and shift into a tiger. It takes you a couple of swipes, but you manage to break through her shadow force field, and you quickly shift back to human form before sprinting to the door.

 

You hear Danny chasing after you, calling your name, but you ignore her. You head through the lobby and back outside, where it’s once again pouring rain. You hesitate, figuring out the best route back to Mattie’s place, and in that amount of time, Danny catches up to you.

 

“Carmilla, wait,” she holds her hands up cautiously. “Please. I don’t want them to go after your mother any more than you do, but I’m useless with the amount of things I can do with the shadows right now. The faster you help me learn, the faster I can help you figure out a way to stop them from going anywhere.”

 

You raise your eyebrow. “You want to basically trap them in Mattie’s apartment?”

 

Danny shrugs. “Of course I don’t _want_ to, but if that’s the only way to stop them from getting themselves killed, I’ll do it. Besides, they have no idea that I know, or that I told you. They’re not going to be running off right now to find her.”

 

You sigh and look up into the rain (it does feel pretty good against your skin). “Alright, fine. So you’re definitely going to have to get faster at the hovering thing.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh noes, is that two sides I see forming in the dimwit squad? 
> 
> Hey, at least we got to see how some of the other powers work (kinda?)
> 
>  
> 
> List of everyone's powers:
> 
> Carmilla- shape shifting, specifically animals
> 
> Laura- teleportion, enhanced strength
> 
> Danny- shadow manipulation, shadow portal creation
> 
> Will- fire/electricity manipulation
> 
> Kirsch- empathy/empathy clairaudience, emotional manipulation, telekinetic blast
> 
> LaF- none (sorry, LaF)
> 
> Perry- health manipulation, force field generation
> 
> Hitchcock- power transferal
> 
> Elsie- enhanced strength
> 
> Mattie- flight, regenerative healing
> 
> Every single power that I use I refer to http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Superpower_Wiki .
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks!


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has zero fighting action, sorry guys....
> 
> Laura's POV, then Carmilla's. 
> 
> (Also, I /do/ have the rest of the story written out, so that's why we now know how many total chapters there are. I have my final weekend working Tarzan then I'm getting dragged along on vacation for two weeks so I wanted to finish it before, because otherwise it'd take weeks to update. I believe I'll have wi-fi at the place I'm staying, which is great so at least I'll able to update, I just won't have time to write. Anyways, that's for the future and is somewhat irrelevant, so onto this chapter!)

“Oh, come on Perry, you know we need you!” you say, putting on your best puppy-dog eyes. It does nothing to persuade the redhead sitting on the couch across from you. She shakes her head and avoids eye contact with LaFontaine, who’s sitting next to her and giving her the same treatment you are.

 

“Laura, what you’re trying to do is dangerous. We’ve already gone through enough, don’t you think?” Perry frowns.

 

“But that’s exactly why we have to do it! We can’t let her ruin more people, Perr,” LaF chimes in. “We all know the risk involved. That’s why we’re asking you to come with us.”

 

“I can only do so much, LaFontaine,” Perry says. “What happens to you if something happens to me? If I’m trapped or if I get injured so that I can’t heal whoever of us gets hurt?”

 

“There’s no way that will happen,” LaFontaine assures. “We’re not going into this blind anymore.”

 

“You know that’s not true! We just all switched powers! It’s like learning how to walk all over again,” Perry sighs. “I can’t help but agree with Carmilla on this one. The best idea is to just lay low and—”

 

“Let people get killed?” you say.

 

“Laura you know that’s not—” Perry starts, but is interrupted by the front door opening.

 

“—and that Jolly Red, is why Deadpool will always be superior to Deathstroke.”

 

“Dream on,” Danny rolls her eyes as both her and Carmilla make their way to the pile of blankets on the floor.

 

Once they both sit down you notice a bruise is forming on Carmilla’s left cheekbone and Danny’s lip is split.

 

“Wow, you guys seriously can’t go anywhere without pummeling each other, can you?” LaFontaine asks as Perry quickly makes her way to Danny.

 

Carmilla shrugs in answer to LaFontaine’s rhetorical question and opens up her bag to grab _another_ book. “I can’t help it if Gigantor is wrong all the time.”

 

Danny scoffs and Perry heals her split lip. “So, anyways. What’s going on here? Where are Kirsch and Will?”

 

“Just talking,” LaF shrugs. “Boring stuff. Will and Kirsch went with Mattie to help open up her bar today, as a way of saying thanks for letting us stay in her apartment for the last few days.”

 

Perry goes to heal Carmilla, but she waves her off. “Not today Gingerlock.”

 

“But—” Perry starts.

 

“Don’t.”

 

Perry glances back at you, as if asking why Carmilla’s being ruder than normal, before turning and heading back to the couch. You shrug in response. When you glance at LaF they’re nodding towards Carmilla very obviously. Wow, do they think you can’t take a hint?

 

Okay, given your past track record that _might_ be true, but still.

 

“Hey, Carm?” you ask.

 

“What’s up?” she asks, not looking up from her book. Danny raises her eyebrows at LaFontaine. You don’t even want to know what they’re trying not to laugh about.

 

“Do you want to go get some coffee, or coca?” you offer, leaning forwards and smiling so that on the small chance she looks up she’ll smile back.

 

“I think Mattie has some you can make,” Carmilla turns the page.

 

You really want to wipe the smirk off of LaFontaine’s face.

 

“But I really need to get out of the apartment and the hot chocolate the coffee place down the street makes is amazing. Please, Carm! I’ll owe you one,” you stand up and make your way over to her. You crouch down in front of her and she slowly closes her book and glances up at you.

 

The dark circles under her eyes once again remind you that she hasn’t gotten a proper night of sleep since the warehouse. You had a feeling she’d been avoiding you with reading so that you didn’t notice how bad she looked, but _damn_.

 

“Please?” you ask, grabbing her hands from her lap and starting to pull her up. She sighs but stands up, her book falling on the floor from her lap. You grab the book before she can reach for it and throw it at LaFontaine to clear their smug expression.

 

“Hey!” they set the book on the ground in front of them. “You going to let her throw your precious book at me, Karnstein?”

 

Carmilla shrugs as she makes her way over to the door. “You’re annoying and it’s Mattie’s book anyways. Let’s go before I change my mind.”

 

You give LaF a satisfied smile as you follow Carmilla out the door. You both walk in uncomfortable silence until you reach the street and you just can’t handle the awkwardness anymore. When did you get so nervous? It’s just Carmilla.

 

“Carm?” you ask.

 

She glances over at you. “Yeah?”

 

“You remember when we had lunch together?”

 

She raises an eyebrow. “Of course. What about it?”

 

You take a big breath to try and calm down. “Did you consider it a _real_ date?” 

 

Carmilla’s expression becomes unreadable, and you _really_ wish you knew what is going on in her head. “Well, what did you consider it as?”

 

You sigh. Both of you are skirting around this, and you’re tired of it. “Yes, Carm, I considered it an actual date. If you want I’d really like you to be my girlfriend.”

 

She looks down and you see the ghost of a smile on her lips. “Of course I’ll be your girlfriend.”

 

You’re suddenly feeling very brave, so you reach over and lock her hand in yours. She tenses, and you start to pull away, but she tightens her grip to stop you.

 

The ghost of a smile becomes an actual smile. “Oh, hey, wait, that can’t possibly be a smile I see. This is Carmilla Karnstein we’re talking about, she’s too badass for that—”

 

“Laura, shut up,” Carmilla looks over at you, but there’s no bite behind it. She pulls you around the street corner and leads you down another block. You’re just about to ask where she’s taking you when you see a small park. She leads you to a bench by a small pond.

 

The scattered clouds from the last storm are turning bright pink and orange from the sun that’s about to set. The water in front of you is reflecting the beautiful sky, and you’re surprised to find that not many people are here; just a couple of kids feeding the ducks on the other side with their parents watching.

 

“So I know that things have been weird lately,” you start, “but I’m just hoping it’s because we’re both dealing with our powers switching and stuff, and I know that you’ve had some rough nights, but I hope you know that you can just talk to me—”

 

You had faced Carmilla during your rant, and she cuts you off in the best way possible. By kissing you. _Honest to god kissing you_.

 

“Shit, sorry,” Carmilla smiles softly as she pulls away half a minute later, “Forgot to breathe.”

 

 _Holy Hogwarts you made Carmilla Karnstein forget to breathe._ She catches her breath and glances around. “Wow, this is a pretty cliché setting.”

 

“Shut up and kiss me again,” you lean in towards her and she gladly obliges.

 

You’re not entirely sure for how long you make out, but you’re definitely not complaining about it. The sun is almost gone by the time you pull away for good.

 

“Hey,” Carmilla frowns. “I was enjoying that.”

 

“Don’t you think our friends are missing us?” you look up at the darkening sky to prove your point.

 

“First off, they’re your friends,” Carmilla leans closer to you, and holy crap those are seduction eyes, “And secondly, I doubt they’re missing us. Just one more?”

 

You don’t fall for it and instead stand up, holding out your hand. “Come on, let’s go.”

 

She sighs and starts to follow you back to Mattie’s apartment. “You’re killing me, Hollis.”

 

* * * *

You know that Laura’s itching to talk to you on the walk home. She keeps opening her mouth like she’s about to speak, but then instantly closes it again and shakes her head. You make it back to the apartment to find everyone you left is watching a movie in the living room. No one bats an eye as you grab your book on the couch (Gingersnap just leans over so they can see) and you head to the bedroom to read in silence. You’re not very surprised when you hear the door creek open.

 

“What is it, cupcake?” you ask, glancing up.

 

Laura very nearly freezes in the doorframe. “What?”

 

You refrain from rolling your eyes. “I’m assuming you’re here and not out there watching the movie because you want to talk about something. So, what is it?”

 

“You know I’m here for you, right?” she sits down next to you. “I know talking about your feelings isn’t really your thing and I kind of lost my empathy powers but—”

 

“Sweetheart, slow down,” you laugh and place your book down. “Rambling is adorable and all, but it makes understanding your point pretty difficult. What exactly do you want me to talk to you about?”

 

Laura purses her lips, clearly nervous. “It’s just, you’re clearly not okay.”

 

You frown. “Well that was right to the point.”

 

Your girlfriend grimaces ( _girlfriend_ , you really like the sound of that) and tries to backtrack. “That’s not—Carm, you’ve barely slept and you haven’t really been eating. You can’t just act like everything is fine.”

 

“But everything _is_ fine—”

 

“No, Carmilla, it’s not,” Laura repeats, putting a hand on your knee. “All you do is sit around and read. I understand you like to read, but you’ve never tried to distract yourself with it like this before. Just because you call me pet names again doesn’t mean that everything is fixed. I know it’s really cliché but you should really talk about everything.”

 

You sigh and lie back on the bed. “Reading is just how I cope; it always has been. There was this one, really rough, summer where I went to the library a lot to get out of the house. Since then, whenever something shakes me up, I just go back to it.”

 

“The power thing is really freaking you out, huh?” Laura asks, lying back as well. She takes your hand in hers and starts to rub circles on your thumb.

 

You could really get used to this.

 

“I should’ve never gotten us into this mess,” you say. “I knew everything would turn out badly, yet I went along with it anyways

 

“Whoa, whoa, wait,” Laura brushes your hair out of your face. You turn to face her and see that she’s frowning at you. “You _did not_ get us into this. If anyone did, it’s me. I got everyone together and I asked everyone to risk their lives. I just thought we’d actually be able to save all the kidnapped powers.”

 

This time you shake your head. “Laura, that’s ridiculous, there’s no way this is your fault. You can’t have this whole thing on your shoulders.”

 

She gives you a sad smile. “Then why do you think that you do?”

 

You sigh. Laura settles in closer to you and places one of her hands on your stomach before once again starting to trace patterns. “You’re not alone, Carmilla.”

 

“I can get used to that,” you smile and glance down at her. You lean towards her and her lips meet yours.

 

After a bit she pulls away again. “Don’t tell me you don’t kiss past 8pm,” you sigh.

 

Laura rolls her eyes. “No, it’s not that. It’s just…”

 

“You want to go against my mother,” you finish.

 

Laura’s pretty shocked, but she doesn’t disagree with you. She moves away slightly, and _crap_ why do have such shitty conversation skills.

 

“Listen, I get you might not want to try again after everything that’s happened, but—” she starts.

 

“You’re damn right I don’t,” you sit up, unable to be this close to Laura without wanting to kiss her and this is really not the time. “We almost died last time. Do you not realize that?”

 

“Of course I do,” Laura once again puts her hand on your knee, and though you want to push her off you refrain. “But that doesn’t mean that we should stop. You know how many people we can save?”

 

“Laura, we’re just a bunch of kids,” you bring your hand up to the bridge of your nose. “We all basically lost our powers. Hell, LaFontaine _actually_ lost theirs! How much more do you think we can take?”

 

“Carmilla, we can’t just forget about the people who are kidnapped! There’s more than 100 people missing! They’re scared, locked away somewhere and have probably given up hope. Wouldn’t you want someone to be there for you if it was you?”

 

“Earlier you said it wasn’t our fault so why are you fighting for this so badly?” you say, exasperated.

 

“Because we can’t just give up on them!” Laura looks over at you. “We can’t just give up on them. People can’t just give up when they can help other people! Especially when they need them.”

 

Laura looks like she’s on the verge of crying and you’re not entirely sure what to do, other than wrap your arms around her and pull her into you.

 

“Care to share?” you ask, because you know there’s some backstory here that you’re missing completely.

 

“It’s stupid it’s just… my mom,” she says into your neck. You freeze, because Laura’s never told you anything about her. She’s mentioned her dad a few times, something about him being overprotective and making her carry around bear spray when she first went to Silas, but she’s never once mentioned her mom.

 

“You don’t have to tell me,” you squeeze her to let her know you’re fine with not knowing.

 

“No, you should know,” Laura pulls away so she can look at you. She’s smiling sadly, and you wish you knew a way to never let her smile like that again.

 

“My mom, she was a, uh, power,” she starts. “It was similar to mine—well, what mine used to be. She had animal empathy. When I first got my powers she was extremely helpful; she helped me learn to control it. When I was ten we decided to move out of the suburban town we were in and out to the countryside so my mom could be around more animals and I could be around less people. She’d never really been around a lot of animals; her family had always lived in the suburbs, so this was the first opportunity she’d _really_ had to interact with a bunch of them all at once. We had dogs, cats, horses, pigs, sheep, and all the typical farm animals. Also, as we lived there, my mom would leave and come back with other animals like cougars and giraffes. I’m not entirely sure where she even got them.

 

“Anyways, at one point we had so many animals that it really was like we owned our own zoo. My mom would wake up extremely early, go and hang out with the animals, and come back way after sundown. My dad and I hardly got to see her. They got into more and more arguments, and soon he couldn’t take it anymore. He said he loved her, but she was starting to spend more time with the animals than she was with us. She started to show traits of the animals; there were days when she would go around on all fours instead of walking and she wouldn’t talk except in gibberish or through barking or some other animal sound. My dad got really worried and when he tried to get her help she refused and ran out of the house. We didn’t see her for four days. When she returned my dad gave her an ultimatum. She had to come back to the suburbs with him and me, or she could stay on the farm with the animals. She uh, kinda chose the animals. We…my dad and I moved out two days later…”

 

“Holy shit,” you mutter as she collapses into you, crying. “That’s pretty intense, buttercup.”

 

Your heart shatters as she grips onto you like you’re the last thing she’s got. This girl surprises you so much—you haven’t felt this way for anyone in a long time. And the way that she looks at you (especially within the last few hours)…

 

“Just don’t expect any heroic power crap from me, cupcake,” you say as Laura pulls herself away to wipe the tears away. She looks at you, confused as you cup her face and wipe her tears away.

 

“What?”

 

You sigh and glance down nervously before meeting her eyes again. “I’m going to completely regret this, but sign me up for the Order of the Phoenix, or whatever it is you and the dimwit squad are going to call it.”

 

Laura squeals in excitement and leans up to kiss you and—yep, you’re a goner.

 

“Hey, guys, I just got a super important email from—whoa,” LaFontaine looks up from their phone to find Laura and you untangling from each other. Well, Laura was attempting to untangle herself; you just glared at them as Laura pushed herself off of you.

 

“You ever heard of knocking, Gingersnap?” you ask sharply, and Laura squeezes your hand as she sits up on the bed. She pulls you up so you’re sitting next to her, and LaFontaine has this really smug grin on their face.

 

What you wouldn’t give to smack them in the face with the shadows in this room.

 

“Well, I just came in here to tell you I received an email from my friend J.P. regarding the new whereabouts of the Dean, but I can see you’re busy. I’ll come back later,” they turn to leave, but _of course_ Laura stops them.

 

“Wait, what are you talking about?”

 

They turn around and glance back at their phone. “Remember when I took the flash drive from Will? I have a friend that’s a genius with computers and hacking and stuff, so I gave it to him to see what he could find out. He got back to me yesterday saying that the feed Will had been hacking into, hadn’t been live for over a month. I told him we figured that much out and asked him to figure out if he could find out the Dean’s real feed. He emailed me a few minutes ago, saying he’d been tracing the Dean’s feed for a couple of hours now and if I give him a day or so, he could possibly hack into her entire network.”

 

You didn’t realize you’d frozen until you felt Laura once again tracing circles on your lower back. You’re not entirely sure how she knows that it calms you, but you’re really grateful for it. She glances over to you, as if asking for your approval.

 

“So, we’re fucking doing this thing then?” you ask, raising an eyebrow.

 

Laura looks to you and her smile absolutely dazzles you. You have a fucking gorgeous girlfriend. You reach behind you and pull your hand into hers.

 

“You guys are a bunch of idiots, you know that?” you smile.

 

LaFontaine looks at you with a goofy smile that’s almost annoying (You sigh internally at the fact that it actually used to drive you up a wall, and now for some reason it doesn’t).

 

“Well _duh_ ,” they smile. “But we’re _your_ idiots.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...okay let's be real here this chapter doesn't have fighting action but it does have kissing action and I feel that can suffice for this update. If it doesn't please you, that's really all I got for now, so sorry :)
> 
> Also, really random, and I'm not sure if it's relevant or not but according to Carmilla: LaF=Gingersnap, Perry=Gingerlock. I realize it can get pretty confusing with the nicknames and like half the people have red hair, so I thought I'd clarify that. 
> 
>  
> 
> List of everyone's powers:
> 
> Carmilla- shape shifting, specifically animals
> 
> Laura- teleportion, enhanced strength
> 
> Danny- shadow manipulation, shadow portal creation
> 
> Will- fire/electricity manipulation
> 
> Kirsch- empathy/empathy clairaudience, emotional manipulation, telekinetic blast
> 
> LaF- none (sorry, LaF)
> 
> Perry- health manipulation, force field generation
> 
> Hitchcock- power transferal
> 
> Elsie- enhanced strength
> 
> Mattie- flight, regenerative healing
> 
> Every single power that I use I refer to http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Superpower_Wiki .
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks!


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Welp I hope it makes sense because I didn't double check it like I normally do. I gotta skedaddle, I'll be back to check it. 
> 
> Carmilla's POV then Laura's.

“I really hope you didn’t drink this much while you’re away at Silas,” Mattie says from behind you. You turn around on the barstool to find that she’s wiping off one of the tables with a wet rag. “You’re there to actually get an education, remember?”

 

You roll your eyes and turn back to the Rum and Coke that you had poured yourself. “It’s to relax. The whole _having a different power_ thing makes me use muscles I normally don’t use, and I’m tense after a week of working out.”

 

Mattie looks at you, the classic _are you fucking kidding me_ look that you get a lot.

 

“You’re not actually my mother, you know,” you swirl your drink in your hand.

 

“Oh, come on, I thought you were over that,” Mattie says as she makes her way to the other side of the bar and throws the towel in the sink. Then she walks over to you and eyes the bottle of rum sitting in front of you.

 

“Want some?” you offer up your glass but Mattie shakes her head. If you didn’t know her, you would’ve missed the look she’s giving you that means she’s disappointed. “Are you going to lecture me, then?”

 

Mattie shakes her head again. “Of course not. You wouldn’t listen anyways. Besides, I think you’re doing the right thing, so there’s nothing to lecture you on.”

 

You scoff. “You always find something to lecture me on.”

 

The bar owner smirks at you. “There’s always things to improve on, darling.”

 

“Still the same old Mattie,” you say and take a sip of your drink. She picks up the bottle from the bar and examines it.

 

“And you’re still the same old ‘Milla. You know, now that you’re not living with me anymore, you’re going to owe me the amount of alcohol you took,” Mattie arches an eyebrow at you, as she places the bottle back in it’s place on the shelf behind her. “Money doesn’t grow on trees.”

 

“Just add it to my never ending tab,” you finish the drink and set the glass back on the table.

 

Mattie grabs the empty glass and puts it in the sink. She turns to face you and reaches across the bar and grabs your hands in hers.

 

“You are aware I now have a girlfriend, right?” you say, looking down at her hands and raise an eyebrow. And, it was really nice to say that just because you actually can.

 

Mattie smiles and raises an eyebrow. “Yes. I am. And I’m glad you’ve finally found someone that can—”

 

“Oh my god, you are not doing this,” you pull your hands away. Mattie laughs and grabs the towel from the sink and starts to wipe down the bar top.

 

“For what it’s worth, I’m happy they managed to convince you to go on this so-called suicide mission,” Mattie says.

 

“Oh, thanks. It’s good to know you want me dead,” you respond, picking at your nails.

 

“Everyone’s going to pull out of this alive,” Mattie says. “Just know that.”

 

 You look up at her to see she’s completely serious. “You did not find Natalie.”

 

Mattie nods slowly. “I did. As soon as you announced what your plans were last week, I went to her place after work to see if she could give me any insight.”

 

“You just decided to drop in on your friend, who can see the future, to see if any of us died?” you summarize.

 

Mattie sighs. “You know it’s not perfect. She can obviously be wrong and she’s general in her predictions, but it definitely couldn’t hurt, right?”

 

“Don’t you remember what happened last time? We aren’t meant to know what happens, Mattie,” you drop your head into your hands in exasperation.

 

“Which is why I wasn’t planning on telling anyone,” Mattie says. “And as long as you’re the only one who knows, I don’t think any decisions will be influenced.”

 

“You shouldn’t have gone at all! For someone who claims to be the adult, you definitely made a stupid decision.”

 

“You know I just wanted to help,” Mattie tries to assure you as she makes her way around the bar to you. “Are you really going to make a big deal out of this, a day before you go? Don’t leave on a bad note.”

 

You sigh. “Yeah, okay. I understand why you did it. But you’re still an idiot.”

 

Mattie wraps you in a hug and you groan. “Ew, gross.”

 

“Shut up,” Mattie laughs as she backs away. “God, you’re so different now than you were three years ago.”

 

You roll your eyes. “I think you stated earlier in this conversation that I was the same as before. You are definitely sending mixed signals, here.”

 

She pushes you lightly and heads back behind the bar, when the front door opens. You turn around to find Danny, Will and Kirsch both laughing about something they’d been talking about.

 

Kirsch heads to the break room with Danny (you really hope they keep it safe for work) and Will decides to take a seat next to you.

 

“What’s up, dipshit?” you ask, half smiling at him.

 

Will smiles at you and Mattie puts a drink in front of him.

 

“Seriously?” you glare at her. “You just gave me shit for that.”

 

Mattie shrugs. “He’s not as much of a headache as you are. Besides, it’s just soda.”

 

Will smirks at you and you shove him so he almost falls off of the stool. Mattie laughs and heads outside to take a call.

 

“So, Kitty—”

 

“Before you even start, just know I’m not doing some cliché brother sister talk with you,” you steal his soda and take a sip. At least it’s root beer. “That’s way too boring and there’s feelings and stuff.”

 

“Because you can only seem to reserve feelings when it comes to Laura,” Will smirks and you threaten to throw the rest of the soda on him.

 

“I will not hesitate to punch you in the face.”

 

Will grabs his glass back before you can do anything. “But seriously. Are you ready to do this?”

 

You shrug, “Who wouldn’t want to kick the bitch off her throne?”

 

Your brother nods. “I’m scared about it too, Kitty.”

 

“It’s just…” you sigh, trying to find words.

 

“Yeah, I know,” Will says, and you’re grateful he understands. “If only we could go back to not knowing any better, right?”

 

“Yeah, those first few years were pretty great,” you half smile. “Remember when I accidentally knocked your two front baby teeth out?”

 

“I wouldn’t call it an accident,” he rolls his eyes, but he’s smiling as well. “I never did pay you back for that.”

 

“I’m sure it’ll happen some day.”

 

There’s a huge crash from the break room and you hear Danny yell out a curse word. You and Will exchange a look before getting up to see what it is.

 

A couple of vodka bottles are broken on the floor. The Zeta Puppy is standing by them, frozen, with the alcohol all over his legs. Danny is bright red. You and Will, glance at each other again, before laughing. Kirsch makes his way out of the break room to clean up.

 

“You guys seriously couldn’t tell the difference between a wall and a shelf?” you smirk at Xena. “You realize that if you push someone up against a shelf to make out with them things will fall of and break?” 

 

“We just—I couldn’t see—shut up,” Danny sputters out, picking up some of the broken glass before throwing it away in the trash can across the small room.

 

“Next time, just keep it in your pants,” Will laughs. “Then things won’t get broken.”

 

“Are you implying that every time these two get it on things get broken?” you raise an eyebrow towards your brother.

 

“I swear I will punch you in the face again, Karnstein,” Danny threatens and she picks up the rest of the broken glass. Will sticks his tongue out at you in satisfaction. “You too, Luce.”

 

Mattie walks in behind you and sees the vodka all over the ground. “What else did I expect?”

 

“Hey, this one’s on the Zeta,” you say as Kirsch appears. “And his beanstalk of a girlfriend.”

 

“Hey! Don’t you make fun of D-Bear like that,” he says, putting his arm around her.

 

You gag, “Sorry, I just forgot I had to be anywhere but here.”

 

“Oh, that’s too bad,” Danny fake-pouts as you head for the door. “No, come back!”

 

You flip her off as you leaving the room. As you make your way out of the bar two of Mattie’s bartenders show up. You’re pretty grateful you left when you did.

 

When you get back to the apartment you find Laura sitting on the couch with Perry.  They’re going over the blueprints of your mother’s compound; it’s near the edge of the city, according to the email that J.P. (Gingersnap’s hacking genius) had sent LaFontaine.

 

“So, Jeep said he’s pretty sure that the powers are all being kept in this part of the building,” Laura points at a part of the blueprint, as she looks up to see you walking into the living room. “Hey, Carm.”

 

“Hey, cupcake,” you say, sitting down on the couch on the other side of her. “Gingerlock.”

 

“Carmilla,” Perry nods.

 

“So, has the plan changed at all, or are we just looking at this thing for the millionth time this week?” you ask, leaning back and putting your arm around Laura. She settles into you and glances up at you, about to retort, but before she can, Gingersnap answers from behind you.

 

“Jeep gave us some more information,” they say, making their way to the kitchen. “I think he’s been on his computer all night. He just passed out.”

 

“Remind me again why the European hacker is staying with us again?” you sigh. Maybe you wouldn’t be so against him, staying with you, if he didn’t look so much like Will. It was kind of freaky.

 

Will and J.P. _could_ be long lost twins or whatever; considering Will’s adopted and J.P. says his family brought him back from Canada when they went to visit (okay, it was a bit more complicated than that, but long story short J.P.’s adopted too).

 

Anyways, you don’t really have any more room for family drama and J.P. seems like an annoying twat. So yeah, you wish he could’ve stayed out of your life until after this whole thing was over.

 

“You’re European too,” Laura says, pulling you from your thoughts, and follows it with a small peck on the cheek (which _really_ pulls you back to reality). “And we’re letting you stay here without complaint.”

 

“I beg to differ on that last statement,” LaFontaine responds from the chair. You pull your shoe off from your foot and throw it at them. “See what I mean?”

 

“Carm, come on,” Laura hooks her arm around your waist and pulls you so you’re leaning all the way back on the couch again. “Play nice.”

 

“Yeah, whatever. So, you said we had new information?” you ask, causing Laura and Perry to go off rambling about the plan that you and Will had come up with.

 

You didn’t pay too much attention, however, because you couldn’t get your mind off of how beautiful Laura looks when she goes on one of her rants.

 

You’re kind of annoyed with “how whipped you’ve become” (Damnit, LaFontaine).

 

* * * *

When you come to, you’re in some dark hallway; the power must’ve gotten cut in the compound. You sit up to quickly, defensively holding out your arms, but find that no one’s near you.

 

You bring up your hand to your earpiece and press on it before speaking. “Hello? Is anyone there?”

 

It takes around fifteen seconds—just when you’d given up hope that someone would answer—when you hear LaF’s voice crackle into your ear. “Laura? Are you okay?”

 

“Oh thank god, Hollis,” Danny responds, relieved.

 

You’re not sore anywhere, so that’s good. You’re trying to remember what happened before you blacked out. “Yeah, I’m fine. Where are you?”

 

“Fuck…Guys…everyone…get…of here!” Carmilla’s voice rings out. You stand up and start running down the hallway.

 

“What? You’re cutting in and out, Kitty!” Will yells.

 

“We need to evacuate! Now!” Danny answers, out of breath. “Morgan has rigged this place with a bomb! It’s going to blow in fifteen minutes!”

 

You run even faster down the hallway and into the next unknown area of the building. The power seems to be on in this section, because the lights are on and there’s an alarm going off. You’ve entered a huge open room with around thirty office cubicles, set up in three different sections. It seems like there’s been a scuffle in this room because there’s papers everywhere and a few of the cubicle walls are shattered, as if someone had been pushed through them.

 

“Laura!” you hear, and across the giant room you see Perry sitting up against the wall. You sprint to her to check her for any injuries (you really hope she hasn’t been the one thrown through the cubicles), but don’t find any.

 

“Are you okay?” you ask as you help her stand up.

 

“I’m fine, just disoriented,” Perry assures you. “It was—”

 

“I know,” you nod sadly. “But listen, we have to get out of here. The Dean has a bomb planted and it’s going off in less than fifteen minutes. We need to find the others and make sure the compound is clear of people.”

 

Perry stands up. “I lost my earpiece. Have you heard from anyone else?”

 

“LaF is okay, as far as I can tell. Danny and Will seemed fine as well,” you tell her as you both make your way out of the room and into yet another hallway. The building didn’t seem this big when you’d first seen the ground plans.

 

“And Carmilla and Kirsch?” Perry asks as you both open doors and checking to make sure no one is in the rooms.

 

“Carmilla cuts in and out, but she’s alive,” you answer as you shut another door. “I haven’t heard anything from Kirsch.”

 

Suddenly a PA system, you weren’t aware was in the warehouse, crackles to life. “This message is for Carmilla Karnstein,” the Dean’s voice rings out, making both you and Perry freeze. “You and your stupid friends have caused me more trouble than I’d like to admit. I believe you have found the automatic back-up procedure that will promptly destroy any evidence permanently. I’m the only one that can shut it down and I’m willing to do so if you meet me in the storage warehouse, to the left of the main building, and we’ll settle this just between us. If that’s not incentive enough for you, just know that your Zeta friend is great company.”

 

“Don’t even think about it, Carm,” you yell into your earpiece. “It’s clearly a trap!”

 

“Sorry, cupcake…you …get out…I’ll…with it,” Carmilla cuts in.

 

“Carmilla don’t you fucking dare,” Danny repeats.

 

“Don’t act…you care…me, Xena.”

 

“Kitty!” Will’s voice cries out, but Carmilla doesn’t respond.

 

You look at Perry, and even though she isn’t in on the conversation, you’re pretty sure she has the gist because she looks terrified.

 

You both sprint off in the direction you think the storage warehouse is in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well I really have no witty comments about this chapter, so yeah. Explanations will be a comin' (or will they?) (naw, they will). 
> 
> Is Carmilla going to go out with a bang? Who knows?!
> 
> Tune in next time, folks, to find out!
> 
>  
> 
> I believe I'm giving you a huge hint by doing THIS:
> 
> Carmilla- 
> 
> Laura- 
> 
> Danny- 
> 
> Will-
> 
> Kirsch- 
> 
> LaF- 
> 
> Perry- 
> 
> Hitchcock- power transferal
> 
> Elsie- enhanced strength
> 
> Mattie- flight, regenerative healing
> 
> Every single power that I use I refer to http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Superpower_Wiki .
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks!


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time jumps! We go back a few hours to just after they arrived at Morgan's compound and then go back to present time. Hope it's not too confusing. 
> 
> But hey, this chapter is pretty long! Something like 5k words! It was either combine what was once originally a part of chapter 24 into this chapter and have a really long chapter or have an extremely short chapter. I chose the former (I do have standards). 
> 
> I still have to figure out the exact ending, so whoops. There might be a bit of time before I update again because I have to reconfigure chapters and actually get the ending from my head onto the word document. (Also I'm being dragged on vacation and wi-fi isn't always a sure thing, but I'll definitely try, guys). 
> 
> Okay POV's: Laura (in the past), then Carmilla (in the past, then again in the present). 
> 
> Sorry for the long summary (Yeah, stop talking, author, just let the poor kids read!)

**About Two Hours Earlier:**

 

 

To say you’re nervous is an understatement. It’s similar to last time: everyone’s dressed in black, everyone’s silent and tense, and Carmilla once again takes charge (it’s kind of hot) and calls out orders.

 

It’s not similar to last time because of the fact that you have a completely different power than you did last time. Now that you teleport, you’re way more hands-on that you had been last time.

 

Also not similar to last time is that the group is splitting up.  Kirsch, LaFontaine, and Danny are going to sneak into the lab and see what the hell is actually going on. You, Perry, and Will are supposed to rescue all of the kidnapped powers. Mattie and Elsie are back at Mattie’s bar to receive the powers and help comfort them, and J.P. and Carmilla are holed up in Mattie’s apartment (headquarters, as LaF calls it).

 

This time you also all have earpieces to communicate. You feel like you’re in a spy movie, and the adrenaline is probably the only reason your nerves aren’t completely stopping you in your tracks.

 

“I found the keycard,” Will’s voice whispers in your ear, making you jump slightly. So maybe you’re not used to the whole earpiece thing yet. “Meet me in the hallway.”

 

You exit the office you were in and see Will is waiting for you in front of the door at the end of the hallway. Perry slowly comes out from the office across from yours. As you both head towards Will, you eye the security camera in the corner of the hallway.

 

You bring your hand up to your right ear and press on the earpiece. “You’re sure that the security system is down?” you ask.

 

“As sure as the sky is blue,” J.P. responds.

 

“The sky is black right now, dimwit,” Carmilla’s voice rings out.

 

“Seriously?” Danny whispers. “It’s not like we’re on a dangerous mission here. Shut up.”

 

Will rolls his eyes and shows you the keycard before turning to the door.

 

“Where did you find it?” Perry asks him.

 

Will shrugs, “The security guard had it in his pocket.”

 

“You—is the guy okay?” you ask as he slides the card in the lock on the wall. Will glances back at you and raises an eyebrow as the door clicks to unlock. 

 

“He works for my evil step-mother, could’ve stopped the whole operation and gotten us all killed, and you’re worried about whether or not he’s okay?”

 

You nod. “Yes. Not everyone is as evil as your mother is. There are innocent people involved too.”

 

Will rolls his eyes and turns the doorknob. “He’s fine, just unconscious.”

 

The three of you slowly step into the new hallway. According to the blueprints there are three separate hallways with twenty rooms each. All of the rooms have a bunk bed, a sink and toilet, which you logically assumed housed the missing powers. Will opens up the first door to the left and you see two women that are probably in their thirties both lying on their beds. The glance at you curiously but don’t move to get up.

 

“Uhm, hi,” Perry says as she enters the small, white room. “We’re here to rescue you.”

 

“Alright,” the lady with the blonde hair on the top bunk answers, sitting up very slowly. Perry reaches out to take their vitals and pulls back after about ten seconds.

 

“They’re drugged,” she whispers to you and Will. “That must be how they prevent them from using their powers. Other than being a bit sluggish and slow, they seem healthy.”

 

Will relays the information to the others over the headset as you and Perry prepare to teleport them back to Elsie. The women don’t seem scared or anything, so at least you don’t have to use your practiced speech to calm them down.

 

Once you have both of them standing you take hold of both of their hands and Perry instructs them to hold on tightly.

 

You close your eyes and will yourself to teleport to Mattie’s bar across the city. All three of you touch down and both of the ladies lose their balance, letting go of you and falling to the floor.

 

“Whoa there,” Elsie jumps up to greet you, laughing. Mattie follows, amused, and comments, “Way to stick the landing.”

 

You roll your eyes. “They’re drugged. We’re pretty sure they’re all going to be this unresponsive, unfortunately. I don’t think there’s anything to do but wait for it to wear off.”

 

Elsie nods as she helps one of the women up, while Mattie helps the other. They both lead the drugged ladies over to a booth in the corner of the bar and help them sit.

 

You teleport back to the room you were in and find that Perry and Will have already moved onto the next room. A little girl and boy both occupy this room, and Perry is talking to them soothingly as you run in.

 

“Alright guys, we’re going to go for a ride,” you whisper to them as you take their hands and teleport them back to Mattie and Elsie.

 

It takes you about fifteen minutes to make your way through one and a half hallways. The only factor in the pairing of roommates seems to be their age. There wasn’t one age group excluded; you’re heart dropped at the sight of two infants in cribs instead of the normal bunk beds. During this time the headset is really only used by LaFontaine to describe science things that you don’t understand to J.P., who responds enthusiastically every once and a while.

 

“How’s it going with the kidnapped powers?” Danny’s voice rings out in your ear as you touch back down in Morgan’s compound.

 

“We’re almost halfway there,” Will answers as you head into the next room.  “Have you guys been able to come to any conclusions with the lab?”

 

“I hope you realize all of that scientific stuff LaFontaine was going on about was their theories on what was in here,” Danny sighs. “We just got _into_ the lab.”

 

“Hey! Don’t glare at me like that. I ramble when I get nervous,” LaF pipes in. “It’s not like I can really defend myself if a guard catches us, and it took you two forever to find a keycard that worked!” You teleport the two young men back to Elsie and when you land in the bar you can hear LaF and Danny bickering.

 

“Hey, guys,” you say. They don’t seize their arguments as Elsie ushers the two over to a few empty seats. You raise your voice, “Guys! Hey! Knock it off!” They finally shut up. “We are _literally_ in the middle of a life-threatening mission. Could you two cool it, until it’s over?”

 

“Yeah, I hate to break off this compelling argument but we have people incoming,” J.P. interrupts.

 

“What do you mean?” Perry asks, and her voice is up an octave (which seems impossible, and yet).

 

“The security cameras are showing a few armored vehicles incoming through the front gate,” J.P. explains. “There’s nothing scheduled until the morning, as far as shipments go.”

 

“So what are you saying?” Danny asks.

 

“He’s saying someone knows we’re here,” Will answers.

 

Mattie notices that you’re frozen (and not gone already) and makes her way over to you.

 

“Is everything okay?” she asks, frowning.

 

“We may have some trouble. We have an unexpected vehicle entering the facility and—”

 

“Why, yes, those are some very scary men with very scary weapons,” J.P. says.

 

“I have to go,” you tell Mattie. “Call J.P. or Carmilla to get updated.”

 

You teleport back to Morgan’s compound and find that Perry and Will haven’t moved onto the next room.

 

“…So we have two options—” Kirsch starts.

 

“We either stay and fight, or flee and just help the people we’ve got so far,” Danny finishes. “What are we going with?”

 

You bring your hand up to your earpiece, “Well, you know what? I’m going to say.”

 

“And I have to disagree,” Perry chimes in over headset. “This is way too dangerous.”

 

“What’s the decision, Carmilla?” Danny asks. “You’re the one calling the shots here.”

 

There’s no answer.

 

“Carmilla?” you ask.

 

“What’s she doing, Jeep?” Will asks.

 

“How the bloody hell would I know?” J.P. answers, and your stomach flops.

 

“What? Isn’t she right next to you?” Danny barks out.

 

“No? She’s never been here. I thought she was with you guys—” J.P. tries to explain.

 

“Wait, Carmilla _isn’t_ at the apartment?” you practically yell.

 

“I’m sorry, Laura, I assumed she was with you,” J.P. sighs.

 

“So where is she?” LaF asks. “She doesn’t seem like the type to just ditch us.”

 

You look between Will and Perry, both of them having similar, mortified expressions.

 

“Is that a panther?” J.P. asks. “That _is_ strange, I don’t think there are any zoos by the compound—”

 

“Son of a bitch,” Danny curses.

 

* * * *

You’ve been sitting outside on the rooftop of one of the buildings opposite your mother’s _actual_ facility for a while now. You slap yourself to stay awake—you’ve almost fallen asleep (again) with how boring the earpiece conversation is. Every once and a while you’ll shift into a great horned owl in order to see if anyone’s approaching, but so far it’s been silent.

 

You can’t really complain at the moment though—at least no ones talking. LaFontaine really needs to know their scientific ramblings make no sense and that no one really cares. You suppose the only thing J.P. is good for is going along with their rant so no one else has to pretend they understand.

 

There’s about ten minutes of silence (a personal record) when Xena’s voice rings over the earpiece. “How’s it going with the kidnapped powers?”

 

Will answers her a couple of seconds later. “We’re almost halfway there. Have you guys been able to come to any conclusions with the lab?” 

 

“I hope you realize all of that scientific stuff LaFontaine was going on about was their theories on what was in here. We just got _into_ the lab.”

 

“Hey! Don’t glare at me like that—”

 

Fuck it, you’re out. You’re not listening to them ramble about the _actual_ lab. You pull the earpiece out and clip it onto the carabiner keychain you have attached to a black ribbon around your neck. You glance around to make sure the coast is clear before sprinting forwards and jumping off the roof and shifting into a great horned owl.

 

You spot them almost immediately—three armored trucks. Your stomach flops when you realize that there’s really no other place for them to go than the compound—all of the other buildings surrounding the facility are in ruins (you’re risking it by being on the roof of the one you’re on) and clearly haven’t been active in years.

 

You quickly head for the roof of the building you camped out on and land as fast as you can before shifting back to human. You watch as the three cars make their way to the front of the compound and enter after swiping a keycard to get the heavy automatic gate to open.

 

 _Shit_.

 

Maybe if you can get to them before they enter any of the buildings the others can just continue with their business like nothing happened. You turn into a crow so you can glide to the ground and leap off the edge of the building.

 

Once you’re on the sidewalk you shift into a panther and make your way around the side of the compound as quickly and quietly as you can. The gate’s closed, but J.P. said disabled the security system so you just jump the gate (which is normally electrified).

 

You land on the other side just as the men are all getting out of their vehicles. You stick to the shadows and hope they won’t see you; they’re all focusing on the entrance to the main building, pointing they guns in that direction.

 

All of them are wearing similar black tactical gear and are getting orders from earpieces. Wait a minute, is that—?

 

 _Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck!_ _Abort mission,_ abort mission!

 

They all make their way to the building and you glance around, hoping to make a distraction. You see a bunch of conveniently placed oil barrels, just outside the reception building to the left, and you quickly sprint towards them.

 

It takes approximately .2 seconds after you knocked the barrels over for your mother's men to start shooting at you. You scramble out of the way and _thank god_ they aren’t better shots. You shapeshift into a fly and the stray bullets stop once they realize you’ve disappeared. Most of them are confused and confer with each other about whether to break protocol or not.

 

Hey, at least you stopped them in their tracks. Only about five of them made it just inside the doorway of the building, and they haven't moved in since the gunfire because they're confused as well, so +1 for Carmilla Karnstein.

 

You make your way towards the main building and through the front door (which one of the men conveniently left open) and head towards the lab. It’s closer to the entrance, so they have less time to get out if they haven’t already.

 

Once you round the corner you shift back into the panther and bolt off in the direction of the lab. You make it there within a minute and are about to barrel through the door when LaFontaine, Danny, and Kirsch exit into the hallway. You nearly run into them and have to skid to a halt (you definitely didn’t lose your balance on the stupid linoleum floor).

 

“Carmilla I swear to _god_ I am murdering you,” Danny snaps as you shift into a human. LaFontaine and Kirsch are laughing behind her (which has nothing to do with you _not_ falling), but shut up when Xena glares at them.

 

“I don’t think we have time for that,” you glance back down the hallway. “So, just, call on the shadow king and teleport out of here, would you?”

 

“But we already decided—”

 

“Doesn’t matter, we need to _get out of here now_ ,” you say.

 

“But the party is just beginning,” a voice calls from down the hallway. Ten armed men make their way into the hallway followed by your least favorite person in the entire world.

 

“Danny!” you call out, sprinting backwards and she raises a shadow field just in time to block the rain of bullets.

 

"The men have just entered the building," J.P. says in your ear. 

 

"Thanks for that, _J.fucking-useless P._ , I had absolutely no idea," you deadpan through the gunfire.

 

“Holy shit,” Will calls out as he, Laura, and Perry round the corner and run towards you guys. “Is that—?”

 

“Hitchcock,” you nod. “Which means we have to get the fuck out of here. Laura and Danny, let’s go!”

 

“Kind of busy, here,” Xena grits out, straightening her arms and pushing the shadow shield towards the armed men to give the group some more space.

 

“This is no fun!” Hitchcock calls out. “Looks like they don’t want to play with you, fellas. I think if you get up close and personal with them they’ll change their minds.”

 

The fire seizes and suddenly the men are all running towards you. Danny let’s go of her shadows and soon it’s an all out action movie brawl.

 

It’s too small of a hallway to shift and properly fight these guys, so you stay in human form as you duke it out. It’s not as easy as they make it look in the movies. The first and second guy go down easy, but the third takes a couple of hits before he lays a huge punch to your left ribcage and you hiss in pain as you dodge the next punch immediately following.

 

You’re not entirely sure where he came from, but suddenly Hitchcock is right in front of you.

 

“Not again you fucker,” you mutter angrily as you go to kick him. He dodges it easily and uses your momentum to catch you off balance and place a hand on your head.

 

* * * *

**Present Time:**

 

You wake up to find out you’re in one of those blasted rooms, which they kept the other kidnapped powers in.

 

 _Alright, okay, don’t freak out_ , you assure yourself as you curl up to think. _It’s just a room; it isn’t that bright. What would Laura tell you to do?_ Girl the hell up, Carm. _Right?_

 

 

You stand up once you’ve calmed down enough and make your way to the door. A half-minute of your ear against the door tells you no one’s around; or if they are, they’re standing completely still waiting for you to come out.

 

You try to shift into a fly, so you can fit in the crack under the door, before you realize Hitchcock touched you. So, _of course_ , you don’t have those powers anymore.

 

What fucking powers _do_ you have, then?

 

You’d know it if you had your original powers back, and you try to teleport before realizing that’s a no as well. You try to create a force field and fail, so you didn’t end up with Gingerlock’s powers.

 

You suppose you wouldn’t know if you had empathy powers unless someone else was around, right? Didn’t Laura mention something about having a telekinetic blast?

 

That’d be useful to break the door open right about now.

 

 _“God damnit!_ ” you scream and slam your fists against the door angrily. When you pull back your hands feel all tingly, and at first you think it’s from the impact of hitting the door but it doesn’t go away as you flex your hands…

 

“Oh, fuck no,” you mutter as you examine your hands. “There’s no fucking way I got…”

 

You focus your anger and a few seconds later—

 

“Fuck this stupid world and everyone in it!” you scream and accidentally shoot fireballs from your flaming fists down towards the ground. You hop out of the way before you realize that the tile floor isn’t going to get set on fire.

 

You can’t look at your hands as you make your way over to the door; it’s just too bizarre _not_ to see your skin burning or be in immense pain. You grip onto the doorknob and let your anger fuel the fire.

 

A minute later, the doorknob is melted and you’re free.

 

You make your way down the hallway and try to get your hands to extinguish. You finally manage it as you hear someone running down the hallway behind you and you spin around and re-light your hands and take on a fighting stance.

 

Danny raises an eyebrow at you and glances down at your hands. “That’s interesting.”

 

You hold back throwing a fireball at her and instead calm down to extinguish the flames. You have higher priorities than toasting the redhead (like finding Laura and Will). So instead you settle for rolling your eyes and saying sarcastically, “I’m almost glad to see you too, Xena. Any news on the others?”

 

Danny points to the earpiece in her ear and shakes her head. That’s when you remember yours is on your neck and you check to see that the goons weren’t smart enough to remove it before they threw you in the cell.

 

It’s partly melted from when you were trying to escape the blasted room, but when you put it in your ear you can still hear Danny’s test clearly.

 

“This stupid thing work?” you ask, pressing your finger to the earpiece and Danny frowns.

 

“You cut in and out, but it’s better than nothing,” she explains.

 

“And what powers did you get?” you sigh, annoyed that Hitchcock bested you all again. He just moves so damn fast.

 

“I’m not exactly sure. I think it could either be empathy or teleportation? But since I can’t understand your feelings, I think it’s teleportation.”

 

You nod, a bit relieved. “Let’s hope you can figure it out so we can all get out of here.” You leave an unsaid, _because I really don’t want to see Hitchcock ever again._

 

Danny leads the way as you both head down the hallway and into unfamiliar territory. You rack your mind for what the blueprints had, but your brain is still a mess from Hitchcock ( _fuck_ , just get it together). You just follow Danny blindly and hope you find Laura soon. If anything happened to her you’d never forgive yourself.

 

You don’t come across a single other person as you walk, which makes you uneasy. Where the hell are Hitchcock and his army of men in black? They wouldn’t just run off unless there was a good reason.

 

“Hey, Xena, isn’t it weird that—”

 

You’re interrupted by another voice in your ear. “Hey, uh, is anyone there?”

 

“LaFontaine?” Danny asks, looking to you as if to check that you heard the voice too. You try not to look disappointed that it isn’t Laura or your dipshit of a brother, but you raise an eyebrow to let her know she didn’t imagine Gingersnap’s voice.

 

“Danny!” they exclaim. “Where are you?”

 

“I’m not sure,” Danny admits, and holds her hands up in innocence when you glare at her. “I’m with Carmilla, though. Her earpiece is somewhat broken, so it cuts in and out. Are you okay?”

 

“Oh, yeah, I’m not like injured or anything,” they assure. “I kind of ran when the fighting got really intense, not having a power and all. All I know is I’m running as fast as I can and then suddenly I hear footsteps behind me and before I know it I’m tasered by one of those stupid stun sticks. Twenty seconds later the bastard appears and smiles creepily at me before he puts his hand on my forehead and I blackout. I’m not exactly sure where I ended up, to be honest. Oh, hey—the sign on the wall says P.R.”

 

Danny takes a couple of seconds to think before saying anything. “I remember that being on the upper left corner of the blueprint. Just try and find an exit and then make your way to the front of the building.”

 

“I’m assuming the same goes for me, too,” Will’s voice rings out, and _thank god._

 

You breathe out a sigh of relief and Danny gives you a soft smile as she responds with, “Yes. And I’m not sure how much of that you got but—”

 

“Yeah, Kitty’s alive,” Will interrupts. “And she better stay that way.”

 

“You dipshit,” you say into the earpiece, and LaFontaine laughs so at least you know the word _dipshit_ made it through.

 

“Okay, head to the front entrance of the building and check the offices and other spaces on your route there. Carmilla and I will be searching as well and we’ll meet you out there. We haven’t met any more armed men, which is suspicious, so try and hurry so we can hopefully get out of here without any more trouble. Got it?”

 

“Got it, chief,” LaF responds.

 

“Aye-aye, captain,” Will replies.

 

You bring your hand up to the bridge of your nose in annoyance and Xena grimaces before saying, “Never do that again.”

 

“You got it, chief.”

 

“Aye-aye, captain.”

 

“You know what?” Danny threatens, but at this point even you’re laughing.

 

“Leave it, Chewy, we have the others to find,” you say as you head off in the direction you both had originally been traveling in.

 

“Do you think Hitchcock and his men are still here?” Danny asks you after about a minute of silence. You quirk your eyebrow at her because her voice shook slightly, something you’d never really heard before. She tries to awkwardly smile back at you.

 

“Scared, Xena?” you give her your signature smirk.

 

Danny rolls her eyes to try to look indifferent but completely fails. “You wish.”

 

You drop your smirk. “Look, I’m not sure what’s going to happen. Hitchcock and his men seem to have disappeared for now, but I’m still expecting some plot twist to happen like a crappy action movie. Something bad is going to happen, and we’re going to be stuck in the middle of it. It’s okay to be scared.”

 

Danny smiles, “Who knew you cared enough to give a pep talk.” 

 

You and Danny look for the others for about two minutes, when you hear the voice you’ve been freaking out over since you woke up.

 

“Hello? Is anyone there?”

 

You and Xena both freeze and you nod to her to respond.

 

“Laura? Are you okay?” LaF asks just before Danny exhales and says,

 

“Oh, thank god Hollis.”

 

You both continue walking, and now you’re fucking _smiling_ because you know that Laura and Will are both safe, and the next door you walk by has loud humming coming from behind it.

 

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Laura answers LaFontaine’s question. “Where are you?”

 

You stop by the door and furrow your eyebrows, confused at the humming (there’s no sign to point out what exactly is making the noise). Danny checks the door across from you, oblivious to the machine’s buzz. You open the door to find that it’s the power room for the building, but there’s something sitting on a plastic chair in the middle of the room. It takes you a couple of seconds to realize what it is, but when you do—

 

You realize why Hitchcock and his men are suddenly absent. Those bastards.

 

“Fuck! You guys, everyone needs to get out of here!” You yell, backing away from the doorway.

 

“What? You’re cutting in and out, Kitty!” Will says.

 

Danny runs up behind you, confused, but as soon as she sees what you’re freaking out about (a digital clock that’s counting down on the face of a lot of wires and explosives) you both back away slowly. As soon as you’re both through the doorway, you take one final reading of the clock (14:52), and scramble down the hallway.

 

“We need to evacuate! Now!” Danny says, out of breath. “Morgan has rigged this place with a bomb! It’s going to blow in fifteen minutes!”

 

You both quickly make your way where you think the entrance of the building is, but you still check rooms to make sure Kirsch isn’t lying still passed out in one of them. When you come across the section you’d been locked up in, Danny starts to scream out his name as you both keep going.

 

He doesn’t respond.

 

After about five minutes you want to tell her that you’re pretty sure that killing your eardrums won’t help you find him, but you restrain yourself. The only good news during this time period is that you both managed to make it back to the lab so you know exactly where you are.

 

Besides, if it were Laura (or Will) you were looking for you’d be freaking out as well.

 

There’s a crackling above you and suddenly your mother’s voice rings throughout the building: “This message is for Carmilla Karnstein. You and your stupid friends have caused me more trouble than I’d like to admit. I believe you have found the automatic back-up procedure that will promptly destroy any evidence permanently. I’m the only one that can shut it down, and am willing to do so if you meet me in the storage warehouse, to the left of the main building, and we’ll settle this just between us. If that’s not incentive enough for you, just know that your Zeta friend is great company.”

 

You were already making your way towards the front door before she ended her speech and you’re almost to it when Danny suddenly has her arms wrapped around you, stopping you from going anywhere.

 

“Don’t even think about it, Carm! It’s clearly a trap!” Laura’s voice rings in your ear.

 

“I have to get your boyfriend back,” you spit out, finally pushing Danny off of you and run out the doorway. “Sorry cupcake, there’s no choice. You need to get out of here just in case,” you say into your headset, running towards the storage building.

 

“Carmilla don’t you fucking dare!” Danny yells, both behind you and in the earpiece. You ignore her and keep running.

 

“Don’t act like you care about me now, Xena.”

 

“Kitty!” Will’s voice cries out, but you ignore him.

 

Suddenly Danny’s in front of you—damn teleportation powers— and you barrel into her, sending both of you to the ground.

 

“You can’t go in there,” the redhead says, grabbing onto you as you try and stand up.

 

“Get off of me!” you order, managing to stand.

 

“We’re not even sure she _has_ Kirsch! She could be lying!” Danny tries to pull you down. You stop struggling and turn to face her.

 

“You don’t know my mother like I do,” you say. “She _isn’t lying_.”

 

“Carmilla—” Danny starts, but is cut off by your punch to her face.

 

“Oh man, that _has_ to hurt,” you shake your head as you disentangle yourself from her grip. It isn’t too hard, considering she brings one hand up to her nose. She tries to get up to chase after you, but there’s no way she can catch up now that she’s injured.

 

“Carbilla, 'oly shid, I’b aboud to burder you—” she calls after you, but you waver her off.

 

“Yeah, yeah, I’m sure you’re going to chop me up into a thousand little pieces,” you say as you reach the door. You turn to face her as she’s slowly walking towards you. “Hey, but honestly? If I don’t make it out within ten minutes you need to teleport everyone out of here. I’ll try and get Kirsch out as soon as I can. Front of the main building, remember?”

 

It’s at this point that she realizes that there’s nothing she can do to stop you—you broke her nose for crying out loud—so she backs off.

 

“'ey, Carbilla?” she asks.

 

You raise an eyebrow at her.

 

“Don’d die. No one’s subbosed to die on dis ding, alrighd?” Danny says, walking up to you and squeezing your arm. “Besides, you’re too buch fun do annoy.”

 

“That’s the plan,” you nod at her before opening the door and heading inside. You make your way from the front room to the main warehouse and when you enter—

 

“I feel this time around, it’ll finally be an even fight, don’t you?”

 

 _Holy fuck you weren’t expecting this_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have nothing to say about this, which is surprising. 
> 
>  
> 
> NEW NEW powers (Jesus, I gotta stop doing this): 
> 
> Carmilla-fire/electricity manipulation
> 
> Laura-?
> 
> Danny-teleportion, enhanced strength
> 
> Will-?
> 
> Kirsch-?
> 
> LaF-?
> 
> Perry-?
> 
> Hitchcock- power transferal
> 
> Elsie- enhanced strength
> 
> Mattie- flight, regenerative healing
> 
> Every single power that I use I refer to http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Superpower_Wiki .
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks!


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay, alright, so I kind of completely changed it since it was Beta'd so all mistakes/funky things in this chapter are definitely mine and mine alone. 
> 
> Second to last one! Can't believe we're almost there. 
> 
> Laura's POV to Carmilla's then back to Laura's. 
> 
> (YO if you want to like listen to a song during Carmilla's POV then please listen to "I Am The Fire" by Halestorm (Oh my god it'll make everything so cheesy. Like nacho cheese. Also, the name ring a bell? Ha ha, I'm pathetic. :P )

When you and Perry arrive at the main entrance you find Danny sitting on the front steps, head in her hands.

 

“Danny, where’s—?” you start down the steps and your stomach flops, because _honestly_ , Carmilla wouldn’t be that stupid, would she? Danny looks up to you with a sad expression and you see that her nose has been gushing blood and is probably broken. “Wait, are you okay?”

 

“Oh my!” Perry trails down the steps behind you and leans down to get a better look at Danny’s nose. “Did Hitchcock or his men do this to you?”

 

Danny slowly shakes her head. “No, you can tank Carbilla for dat.” 

 

Perry frowns. “Well, I can try to reset it but I don’t have a splints or ice with me. Unfortunately I no longer have my healing powers.”

 

“Looks like someone’s in need of assistance,” LaFontaine’s voice came from behind you. They run down the steps and before you or Perry can say anything, they help Danny to her feet and give her an amused smirk when they see the damage.

 

“Carmilla finally let you have it, huh?” they ask.

 

“LaFontaine!” Perry scolds them. “Danny is angry and hurt enough as it is. Don’t provoke her just because you find it funny that Carmilla broke her nose.”

 

They raise their eyebrow in response but shrug and turned back to Danny. “Looks like I get to practice on someone besides me after all.”

 

You’re confused until LaF puts their hand just above Danny’s nose, in between her eyes. You heard the soft cracking of bones being snapped back into place and Danny lets out a small gasp. A few seconds later LaFontaine pulls away and Danny leans forward, bringing her hands up to her now-healed nose.

 

“Thanks,” Danny straightens up. “So I’ve got teleportation, LaFontaine has healing, and you both have…?”

 

“Empathy,” Perry responds, glancing back at you with a sincere smile on her face.

 

You’d figured out what powers you had almost as soon as you had woken up—not that you wanted to acknowledge them at the time because you had other things to worry about. “I have shadow manipulation.”

 

Will sprints out of the glass doors as soon as you finish your sentence. “Guys, where’s Carmilla? Tell me she didn’t go in after my mother.”

 

You look towards the storage warehouse and you didn’t even realize you were walking towards it until Danny pulls you back.

 

“Hollis, no! It’s too dangerous,” Danny says and you spin around to face the others. Apparently Will had started for the warehouse too, because Perry had her hand on his shoulder, preventing him from moving as well.

 

“Danny’s right,” Perry agrees. “We can’t just go in there! We don’t know how to use our new powers. Besides, I’m sure Carmilla has everything under control.”

 

“We also need to deal with the other kidnapped powers,” LaFontaine adds. “All of this would kind of be a waste unless we got all of them out.”

 

Will looks just as annoyed as you feel. “How can we just _leave her in there?_ We’re her family! Tell me you wouldn’t want back up if you were in there.”

 

“Laura, she seemed pretty adamant on doing this by herself,” Danny says. “Let’s figure out how to get the prisoned powers out of here and then we can rescue Carmilla.”

 

“Provided she needs help,” LaFontaine says. “What? Tell me she isn’t as dangerous as a bloodthirsty vampire on a rampage. Who’s powers did she end up with, anyways?”

 

Danny gives you a look that you can’t quite place, but doesn’t answer. LaFontaine pulls their cellphone out of their pocket and dials J.P.’s number.

 

You can’t help but pace as LaFontaine and J.P. talk. You know Perry’s probably annoyed because you are _radiating_ stress and worry, but she doesn’t do anything but watch you with a concerned look. Will plops down on the steps, frustrated. Danny doesn’t move except to turn towards the storage warehouse entrance.

 

“…you said you think the drugs are wearing off? Can they move well enough to get themselves out of there?” LaF asks into the phone. “Awesome! Then we’ll just open the keycard doors and… wait, they’re _doing what_? You couldn’t have mentioned that a minute ago?”

 

Everyone turns to face LaFontaine, but they’re looking down at the ground and scuffling their feet nervously. “I’m not so sure the others are going to like that,” they sigh. “Yeah, Jeep, I’m aware I can’t exactly stop them! I was just saying that—”

 

“What are you talking about?” Perry frowns.

 

LaFontaine looks up, realizing that everyone is listening in on their conversation. “Well—”

 

“Incoming!” someone yells, and everyone looks straight up in the air to see a large figure heading towards you at an alarming speed. You and Danny quickly head back onto the steps as they land on the ground.

 

It takes you a second to realize that it isn’t just one person—but two. Elsie climbs off of Mattie’s back and holds her hand out for a high five, but Mattie isn’t amused and leaves the blonde hanging.

 

“Seriously? You’re not going to acknowledge that flying over the city like that was _fucking awesome?_ ” Elsie frowns as Mattie steps closer to you guys. LaFontaine shakes their head, smiling, and puts their phone back into their pocket.

 

“It sounded like you could use some help,” Mattie glances around at everyone, a sly smile on her face. “And we came to join the party.”

 

Will groans and puts his head back in his hands. Perry looks at him, concerned, but she doesn’t say anything.

 

“So what’s the plan, man?” Elsie asks, clearly excited about not being stuck back at the bar.

 

“We need to get the rest of the kidnapped powers out of here,” LaFontaine says. “Jeep says that they’re alert enough to walk, but that’s pretty much it. We need to get them off the property within the next ten minutes or…”

 

Mattie nods. “Elsie and I can help take them into one of the abandoned buildings across the street. They should be safe from the blast there.”

 

“There isn’t a locked door or gate that’s been able to stop me yet,” Elsie smiles, cracking her knuckles.

 

Perry and LaFontaine lead them inside while you, Danny, and Will stay at the main entrance.

 

Three long minutes tick by, and you can’t help but take up pacing again. That means there’s only seven minutes until—

 

“Okay guys, this way,” Elsie says as she heads out of the glass doors. Mattie exits right behind her, followed by at least forty people slowly trickling out the double doors, taking in their surroundings. LaF and Perry take up the rear. The kidnappee’s look completely terrified; they’re all huddled into each other and their eyes dart around, expecting an attack. One small girl looks directly at you as she hugs her mom closer. You give her a soft smile, which she returns back.

 

Your heart breaks a bit at the sight of all of these frightened people. They didn’t deserve any of this.

 

“We’re going to get you somewhere safe and then call some people to come and get you,” Mattie informs before she and Elsie lead them quickly through the main gate.

 

“Now that everyone’s safe,” Will stands up. “We need to go help Kitty.”  

 

“Kirsch!” Danny exclaims, and you spin around to find that, indeed, the huge Zeta is running towards you. You look to the entrance of the storage warehouse in hopes of finding Carmilla come running out as well.

 

“Danny! Holy shit!” they hug like they haven’t seen each other and years, and you really don’t want to be rude, but you really have to know—

 

“Is Carmilla okay?” you blurt out once you see she also doesn’t exit the building.

 

“Well, uh…” Kirsch looks at you sadly— _no,_ _no, no, no,_ fuck _that’s bad_ — “Her and her mother were talking and arguing for a while. I really tried not to listen in—bro rules about privacy and all. They had me at knife point until she forced them to let me go. She’s kind of in the middle of a fight to the death, I think.”

 

“Well, then, that’ll be easy because her mom is a non-power,” Perry assures you. “Carmilla will kick her mom’s ass in no time.”

 

“Wait I didn’t mean that—” Kirsch starts.

 

“Then what did you mean?” Danny interrupts.  

 

Will once again seems to have put it together: “Hitchcock must’ve given mother LaFontaine’s powers right after he switched all of ours at the warehouse.  That coward! I wish he was here right now, I’d kick his ass.”

 

“ _Dudes_ , would you quit interrupting me? I was going to say she’s fighting Hitchcock, not the Dean. But Morgan does have—” Kirsch starts, and you’re sure he says more, but you don’t hear him because you’re sprinting towards the storage building. You have less than five minutes to get Carm out of there.

 

_Carmilla Karnstein, if you make it out of this death battle alive I am going to murder you._

 

“Laura, wait!” you hear Danny and LaFontaine call out behind you, but you make it to the front door and burst through it and into the back storage room.

 

_Holy shit that’s a lot of vines._

 

The Dean, in all of her 6-foot tall, pant-suited evilness, is standing on what is basically a 10-foot tall pile of vines in the left corner by the loading dock. The center of the football field sized room had been cleared to create a sort of arena surrounded by the Morgan’s dangerous plants; her sharp branches and vines have overrun the walls and the industrial shelving along the edge of the room.

 

Twenty of Hitchcock’s (or the Dean’s?) men line the outside of the concrete clearing, though they don’t seem armed. They all look at you when you enter, but don’t move from their military stances.

 

In the middle of the room Hitchcock and Carmilla are indeed fighting—non-power style. Hitchcock is still wearing his long sleeved grey coat and black pants from before, but now he’s gloved and has a dark bandana covering the bottom half of his face so that there’s way less of a chance he’ll touch her.

 

He looks exactly what you expect an evil minion would look like.

 

You’d never come into direct contact with Morgan other than in Carmilla’s dream, and you have to say that even though it painted a pretty horrifying picture of her (she was _torturing_ Carmilla, for god’s sake), nothing could compare to real life. She’s glaring at you and that makes tour blood run cold and goose bumps appear on the back of your neck. You instinctively back up and you run into someone.

 

“We’re with you, L,” LaFontaine whispers in your ear because you can’t take your eyes off of Carmilla and Hitchcock (this is the first time you realize she’s a _really_ skilled at combat—Hitchcock may be crazy fast, but he has yet to get a decent hit in). “All the way.”

 

“Well, well,” the Dean smirks, and it’s way more menacing than Carmilla’s. “Who do we have here? Your friends, Carmilla?”

 

Carmilla unfortunately hears the Dean’s comment and follows her mother’s gaze to you. Hitchcock takes a moment of distraction to land a heavy punch to her ribs, but Carmilla uses her seemingly lost balance to kick out at him. He blocks it by grabbing her ankle and twisting it slowly. At first Carmilla resists, but finds that she either has to spin with it or risk getting her ankle broken. Hitchcock laughs and pushes her away. Carmilla stumbles and backs away so that Hitchcock can’t reach her while she recovers.

 

“Carm!” you yell out, and go to rush forwards, but LaF holds you back. Carmilla straightens up slowly, and gives Hitchcock a half-smile.

 

“Don’t worry about me, cupcake,” she says as she advances towards him again, but you know she’s hurt because she favors her right leg.

 

Morgan sighs from her throne of vines after another minute of them going back and forth. “This is getting boring. I figured it would be over by now, one way or another. Your friends came to rescue you? Fine. Let’s see how they hold up.”

 

She motions for the other men to attack, and once again you find yourself in the middle of a movie-worthy fight. At least this time you don’t have to worry about getting a tap on the shoulder from Hitchcock.

 

The man that decides to go after you is at least a foot taller than you—which you use to your advantage. You’re smaller and faster than he is, and after a bit of dodging you use his momentum against him and soon he’s on the ground.

 

You turn to see a mountain lion slinking past you. A quick look around tells you that it’s Will, and he doesn’t seem to be the only one using their new powers. Danny is teleporting around, dropping guys when she can, and LaFontaine is untouchable thanks their force field, and Perry seems to have figured out how to use small telekinetic blasts. You frown when you realize Kirsch seems to be the one without a power.

 

The only thing you can really figure out is how to do is pull small shadow pieces to block an attack. You’ll take all you can get at this point, since Morgan's men keep fighting you. 

 

One last goon heads your way. It takes you ten seconds to drop him on his ass, and you look up just in time to see Carmilla hovering above Hitchcock (who’s almost unconscious), holding him by his collar. You run towards her because you're confident that the others can handle the last two men standing. 

 

“…and I’ll rip both of your stupid tiny balls off and feed them to—”

 

“Carm!” you cut her off, and she sighs without looking up at you.

 

“Okay, _fine_ , I’ll just chop one off and—”

 

“Carmilla! We don’t exactly have time for this! Does the bomb that’s going to sink the whole compound ring a bell?” you say.

 

She rolls her eyes, but gives Hitchcock one last punch to the bandana before dropping him, unconscious.

 

“Who knew that someone actually cared about you enough to attempt to save you?” the Dean laughs from her corner, and suddenly Carmilla is wrapped in several huge vines right in front of your eyes and is being lifted in the air. One of them snakes its way around her throat.

 

“Carm!” you cry out, and _no_ , the Dean’s chocking her and _why aren’t you moving to try and save her_? You look down to find that your own legs are entrapped in the stupid things as well, so you’re forced to watch as she’s struggling and wriggling to get free.

 

She makes eye contact with you and even though _she’s dying_ she manages to give you a half-smile.

 

* * * *

 _God fucking_ damnit _you can’t breathe_.

 

You look over at Laura and see tears rolling down her face as she struggles to get loose of your mother’s vines wrapped around her feet. _Fuck._

 

 

You give her the best smile you can to try and assure her as your hands _finally_ catch fire. A few seconds later you can hear your mother scream in agony and the vines release you. You fall the four feet (your ankle didn’t appreciate that) and immediately lower yourself onto your hands and knees to gasp for air. Laura says something in relief, probably along the lines of “Thank god, Carm!” but you don’t exactly hear what it is.

 

“Well, _that_ is certainly interesting,” your mother’s voice comes from behind you and you slowly stand up to see that she’s managed to make her way over to you. She’s looking down at your blazing fists and has an amused smirk on her face.

 

You hear footsteps behind you and glance back to see that the entire dimwit squad is standing behind you, ready for combat. Apparently you'd made enough damage that your mother released all the vines constricting the others. 

 

“Hey Xena, it would be great if you could get everyone else out of here,” you say, turning back to face your mother. “We’re going to finish this.”

 

Oh god, that was cliché.

 

“Carm you can’t!” Laura exclaims behind you.

 

“Kitty, please,” Will pleads softly.

 

“Danny, now!” you order, and you hear shuffling and turn around to see that she managed to grab the ginger twins before teleporting out of here.

 

You can’t meet your brother or Laura’s eyes, because you know you’ll crack if you see the disappointment on their faces.

 

“You should listen to your sister, Willam,” your mother says from behind you. “This is between me and her.”

 

Xena touches back down and before they can argue any more you simply say, “Go with Chewy. Natalie saw that no one dies on this thing, so I’ll be right behind you.”

 

“Carmilla—”

 

“ _Laura_ , you’re wasting time. Go.”

 

“I just…” she trails off, and you glance back at her to see she has tears threatening to spill over. “ _you know_. We can’t lose you.”

 

“You won’t,” you promise, though you’re not so sure. You have around two minutes to render your mother unconscious (a feat within itself, now that she’s mastered Gingersnap’s powers) and you won’t exactly have Danny to poof you out of here.

 

Danny grabs a hold of Laura and all three of them disappear.

 

“Now that _that_ inconvenience is settled,” your mother smiles maniacally at you. She raises her arms and two branches come shooting off at you, which you dodge.

 

“What were you going to do to the people you kidnapped?” you ask, regaining a proper stance and using your anger to fuel some fireballs.

 

“Nothing much,” your mother responds as she steps aside, causing the fire to miss completely. “I was simply going to turn them back to their natural state.”

 

“Having powers _is_ a natural state. You can’t just take that away from them,” you growl, sprinting towards her, touching as much of her plant life as you can reach with your blazing hands. The bitch grimaces each time you make contact, and you can only hope it hurts as much as it did the many times she put the flames to your skin.

 

You almost hesitate when you reach her—she is your mother, after all—but you’re so _done_ with her bullshit that you kick out towards her anyways. Your mother sidesteps and brings herself into a fighting stance.

 

You had no idea your step mother had any sort of combat training; you just assumed she had a knack for pushing around people smaller than her and was handy with a blowtorch.

 

“Oh, my glittering girl,” she smiles that fake smile at you like she did when you were a child as she dodges a flaming punch. “You had so much potential. I was going to fix you and your step-brother too, you know. You should be grateful that Damien and I were willing to go through _years_ of research and hard work to find a cure. As soon as we found a successful serum, you two were going to be the first ones we used it on. When I found you at the orphanage in Austria I knew you wouldn’t make it through the winter; they couldn’t take care of the amount of kids they had. I _saved_ you. And this is how you repay me? You could have been so much more.”

 

“I was never going to be good enough for you!” you snarl out as you land a kick to the abdomen. She stumbles backwards and you sprint towards her and tackle her to the ground. The force causes something to skitter out from her jacket.

 

She’s screaming, yelling at you to stop, and you turn back to her and realize your hands on her chest have burned through her clothes. You extinguish the flames but she still whimpers in pain.

 

“You’re a pathetic excuse for a person,” you scream hysterically at her. “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!”

 

“I do love you, you know,” she chokes out. “I did a lot for you. I just wanted to make you perfect—”

 

“No!” you shove her father into the ground. “You’re fucking insane.”

 

You stand up and sprint towards the door. You check your watch; you have forty seconds to make it off the property.

 

“Mircalla!” she calls softly behind you just as you reach the door. You freeze.

 

“That’s not my name anymore,” you say, slowly turning towards her. “You changed it once we left the shelter.”

 

She’s painfully sitting up and has whatever box thing fell out of her jacket earlier in her left hand.

 

You realize what it is too late.

 

* * * *

You, Danny, and Will touch down on the rooftop of one of the abandoned buildings across the street of the compound. LaF, Perry, Kirsch, Mattie, and Elsie are all standing closer to the edge of the building and you walk towards them. Your exhaustion seems to seep away—the darkness of the night is comforting to you.

 

Mattie glances over from where the group is huddled. “Where’s ‘Milla?”

 

“She, uh…” you can’t bring yourself to finish the sentence.

 

“Bagheera had some unfinished business with her mom,” Danny replies as all three of you join the group. “She said she’ll make it out in time.”

 

Everyone faces the compound, waiting to see Carmilla come sprinting out. You keep your phone in front of you to keep track of the time.

 

You start to get really nervous when there’s less than a minute left.

 

“Come on, Carm,” you whisper. Forty-five seconds. Forty. Thir—

 

_BOOM!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that ended with a bang. *ba dum tshh*
> 
> We also learn Hitchcock's irrelevant first name. Weird.  
>  
> 
> NEW NEW powers (Jesus, I gotta stop doing this):
> 
> Carmilla-fire/electricity manipulation
> 
> Laura-shadow manipulation, shadow portal creation
> 
> Danny-teleportion, enhanced strength
> 
> Will-shape shifting, specifically animals
> 
> Kirsch-sorry boo
> 
> LaF-health manipulation, force field generation
> 
> Perry-empathy/empathy clairaudience, emotional manipulation, telekinetic blast
> 
> Damien Hitchcock- power transferal
> 
> Lilita Morgan: organic manipulation
> 
> Elsie- enhanced strength
> 
> Mattie- flight, regenerative healing
> 
> Every single power that I use I refer to http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Superpower_Wiki .
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks!


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay, okay, yeah, I'm definitely the worst when it comes to putting up chapters. I hope this (sort of) ending is worth the wait! 
> 
> Once again, this chapter was unbeta'd, so all mistakes are mine. 
> 
> I'm not a doctor or anything, so if there are inaccuracies about the hospital or if the explanations of injuries are incorrect, I'm really sorry!

It’s just like out of a movie. The entire main building is completely falls in on itself. Two of the storage building walls similarly collapse, taking a part of the wall with the front door with it.

The only thing the movies get wrong is fact that there’s no fireball and the noise—oh, the noise. It’s deafening; your ears are still ringing.

Danny’s arms are wrapped around you, holding you, and you’re collapsing onto the ground because your legs don’t seem to want to support you anymore.

You vaguely hear someone screaming. You’re not sure if it’s you or not.

There had been thirty seconds left. You _know_ you hadn’t counted wrong. Thirty seconds. She could’ve made it. Thirty seconds. Carmilla could’ve—

 

Darkness surrounds you. There’s no light anywhere and the only way you know you’re conscious is because you can still feel Danny’s embrace around you.

 

Surprisingly, it was comforting. The last time you had been enclosed by this much blackness it had scared you, consumed you.

 

Now you never wanted to leave.

 

“Laura—Laura! Come back to me!”

 

Just as quickly as it arrived the darkness disappears. The collapsed compound is once again in front of you; the sight causes you to involuntarily let out a choked sob.

 

Danny’s rocking you back and forth and you glance up at her. “Hiding in the shadows isn’t going to do anyone any good, Hollis,” she smiles sadly as she wipes away tears you weren’t aware had fallen. “Although, you have to admit surrounding both of us was a pretty cool trick.”

 

You try to get out an apology but words don’t seem to want to work.  

 

Danny shakes her head. “It’s okay. We’re back to reality now. The question is: are we going to stay?”

 

You nod.

 

“Good. Then let’s go fish Bagheera out of the rubble.”

 

“I—you think she’s alive?” you ask, your voice hoarse from screaming.

 

“She has to be, right?” Danny asks as she stands up before helping you to your feet. Everyone else looks pretty shocked. LaF and Perry are gripping onto each other, staring blankly out towards the compound. Mattie is crumpling in on herself, her arms wrapped around her own stomach, shaking her head in disbelief and muttering something you can’t hear. Elsie is just standing there, mouth open in stupor. Will buried in Kirsch’s lap; he seems to have collapsed just like you did.

 

Your stomach flops from his heart-breaking sobs.

 

“We’re going to look for her,” Danny announces. Kirsch looks up from caressing Will’s head and nods. Perry fishes through her bag and throws each of you a flashlight.

 

Once you catch it, you glance up at the tall redhead. She takes a hold of your other hand, and a second later you’re back in front of the partially collapsed storage building.

 

“Laura, this building is unsafe, so as much as I want to find her, I also don’t want the rest of it to fall in on itself and kill us,” Danny looks down at you and leads you through the hole in the mangled metal doorway. “So be careful.”

 

You nod numbly and you both start to slowly search through the rubble. In some places you can see the original ground, but mostly it’s covered by debris. There are rocks of concrete, shards of drywall, broken wood planks, shattered shelving, and rebar poking out everywhere.

 

Danny leads you on a quick search around the place. Your heart sinks when you don’t see her anywhere, meaning she _has_ to be underneath one of the big piles of wreckage.

 

You make your way to a pile and start digging, calling out Carmilla’s name. At first it’s easy; there’s a couple of planks and some drywall pieces that you easily throw out of the way. You move things carelessly, just _trying to find her._ You don’t stop when a piece of rebar ends up hitting your left cheekbone; you can’t even feel the pain. A few seconds later you reach up to find that wet sticky blood is dripping from the cut, but you can’t bring yourself to care.

 

_You have to find her._

 

The rubble you’re trying to pick up gets bigger and bigger. You get frustrated when you realize you’re not strong enough to move the heavier concrete and metal pieces out of the way by yourself.

 

“If only we had X-Ray vision, huh?” she sighs from her pile, flinging a long piece of rebar. “We could lift some of these bigger things together, but we could waste so much time if she’s not under there.”

 

That’s when you remember Danny saying something about being able to use the shadows to feel where objects where when she had Carmilla’s powers. You can do that, right?

 

Now that it’s brought to you attention, you _can_ feel the shadows around you. At first it’s really hard to tell where certain things end and others begin—everything’s jumbled because of the mounds of rubble—but the more you focus the more you start to distinguish shapes.

 

There’s nothing distinctly human shaped in the pile that you’re both by. You glance around, taking in the other places she could be under. You slowly walk around the space and concentrate on feeling something that isn’t a straight piece of drywall or huge rock of concrete. Danny climbs her way up on one of the smaller hills and starts to dig through the debris.

 

You’ve just about given up hope when you feel it. Not that far under the surface is a distinctly human shape—your stomach squirms a bit when you realize that there are two figures, one right on top of the other.

 

“Danny!” you call out, and a second later she’s right next to you. You point to the broken metal shelf lying over a huge piece of drywall. “Help me get those off.”

 

She helps you move them and you scramble over to where you pray Carmilla’s lying, unbroken.

 

You aren’t sure at first, whether or not she’s okay.  She’s sprawled facedown, unmoving. Small specks or drywall completely cover her, making her black leather pants, hoodie, and her mess of a hair look gray.

 

“Carmilla?” you ask quietly, hoping she’ll stir. She doesn’t. “Carmilla!”

 

You don’t even think about the fact that moving her might be bad; you just need to make sure she’s breathing.

 

“Help me turn her over,” you ask Danny.

 

“But—”

 

“Now!” you scream, and flinch at how harsh it sounds. You look up and give her a sympathetic look. “Please. I’m not sure if she’s breathing.”

 

Danny holds up a hand and nods to let you know she understands before climbing over some of the debris to get a better angle. You gently take a hold of her shoulders while Danny grabs her thighs.

 

“One, two, three!” Danny counts down, and you both slowly flip her over.

 

You wince when you realize that her left arm is broken and is completely bent the wrong way.

 

“Looks like her leg is broken as well,” Danny nods towards her right leg. You bend down and place your hear to her chest.

 

It’s faint, but her chest raises and lowers slowly.

 

That’s when you really look her over. There’s bruising starting to form on the left side of her forehead, but other than that her head seems unharmed. Luckily both of her broken limbs are closed fractures; there could’ve been serious trouble if either had broken the skin. Her leg isn’t as bad as her arm is—at least you can look at it without wanting to lose your lunch.

 

You really want to ignore the reason that Carmilla had been lying facedown, but Danny brings it up once you both realize Carmilla is as stable as she can get before the ambulance gets here.

 

“So what are we going to do about evil minion over here?” she points to Hitchcock. “He’s alive too, but we could change that pretty easily.”

 

You take Carmilla’s non-broken hand in yours and shake your head, finally letting the tears that have built up fall. ( _She’s alive, she’s alive, she’s alive_ ) “Carm—she protected him from the blast for a reason. If he’s dead he can’t switch our powers back.”

 

Danny nods and stands up. “Then I’m going to get Will; he’s going to want to see that we found her.”

 

She disappears and ten seconds later both her and Will are standing behind you.

 

“Kitty,” he smiles as he drops down next to your right. He brushes her bangs out of her face. “You dipshit.”

 

You didn’t even realize that Danny had left to get the others until you hear shuffling behind you. Mattie moves to your right and glances down at Carmilla, Elsie hovering closely behind.

 

“That’s hardcore. She _is_ alive, right?” LaF comments, and immediately gets a shove from Perry. “Sorry.”

 

This is the first time that you _really_ glance at everyone else since the explosion. It’s a tie between whether LaF or Kirsch is worst off. They have blood running from their nose, their knuckles are bloody and swollen, and they have two pretty big cuts on their face; one their left cheek as well as one on the right side of their chin. Kirsch has a small cut on the bridge of his nose, but is holding is left shoulder as if he dislocated it. Danny also has a tiny gash on her nose in a similar spot; the only difference is that hers has blood running down her nose. Perry has most of her weight on her left leg and his holding her right foot slightly off the ground, so you’re pretty sure she sprained an ankle.

 

“We look great, bros,” Kirsch smiles innocently. Apparently everyone was just now realizing how bad they all looked as well.

 

“Oh, yeah,” LaF says and moves quickly to the tall Zeta, gripping onto his left hand. Ten seconds later they let go and Kirsch rotates his shoulder to test it out before giving them a thumbs up.

 

LaF goes around and helps heal everyone’s minor injuries. They step in front of you and Will after they help Danny with her nose and press their palm up against your cheek. You wince as you remember the cut you got earlier digging through the debris, but seconds later they pull away and you know it’s healed.

 

“You’re not going to heal her, are you?” Will flatly asks, still not taking his eyes off of his sister.

 

“I don’t trust myself to heal her properly,” LaF shakes their head. “There’s too much that can go wrong. If it were Perry she could, but…”

 

Just as they trail off you hear sirens. Everyone glances around at each other and Mattie grabs Elsie before heading out the doorway (Elsie ever so kindly clears the mangled door by ripping it out and tossing it to the side as if it were plastic) to meet the authorities.

 

Four paramedics, two of whom are pushing a gurney, follow Mattie and Elsie back in a minute later.

 

Will immediately stands up and offers you a hand with a sad smile. You take it and he pulls you up just as the medics get to her and start asking questions.

 

Things seem to happen in a blur. They put Carmilla on the gurney after quickly examining her. Will agrees to ride with them, and everyone else watches as the ambulance takes off quickly down the street. Another arrives to take Hitchcock. Danny grabs a hold of everyone and suddenly you’re all at the main entrance of the hospital. You all quickly make your way to the emergency department. Everyone grabs a spot on surprisingly comfortable chairs in the waiting room. Ten minutes later Will walks in, dazed. You ask him how Carmilla’s doing. He says that the paramedics say that they won’t know the extent of the internal bleeding until they get her a CT scan.

 

So you all wait. The ER empties as the morning nears 3am. A nurse named Mel comes in and announces that Carmilla has been sent off to surgery to repair some bleeding in her brain. You start not being able to breathe and you think Will completely shuts down beside you, but the nurse assures you they got to her in time; she will most likely live.

 

Mel goes on to say something about Hitchcock’s condition, but you don’t hear her.

 

 _Most likely live._ You repeat over and over and over again in your head after the nurse leaves.

 

You wait. And wait. It’s nearly five in the morning by now, and exhaustion is really starting to creep over everyone. Kirsch is drooling on Danny, completely asleep, and LaF nods off a couple of times with their head on Perry’s shoulder.

 

Danny gets up and stretches, sending Kirsch’s sleeping head bobbling over. She suggests that people take turns to go back to Mattie’s apartment to take a shower and a change of clothes. LaF takes her up immediately on the offer and agrees to go, followed by Mattie and Elsie.

 

She glances at you and raises an eyebrow.

 

“Are you saying I look like crap?” you half-smile.

 

“Technically I didn’t say anything, Hollis,” Danny smirks—you look away because the facial expression reminds you of the girl that’s in the operating room. So much for the lively mood you were in for 2 seconds.

 

_Most likely, most likely, most likely—_

 

“She didn’t say it but she was definitely thinking it,” Perry says, pulling you from the mantra starting in your head, and you didn’t realize that she’d stood up behind you. She takes a gentle hold of your shoulders and guides you towards Danny and the others. “Please go take a nice long shower, Laura. You need it.”

 

You scoff as you hold out your arms to hold on to Kirsch and LaF. “Tell me how you really feel.”

 

Danny grabs onto Mattie and Elsie to complete the circuit. A second later you’re in Mattie’s living room.

 

Everyone takes turns getting in the shower; everyone else insists you go first.

 

Once you get out, you seriously feel like a whole knew person. Everyone's sitting around in the living room, including J.P., all looking like they're about to fall asleep. LaF notices you enter and hops up to head for the bathroom because “Perry can’t stand this blood all over me, so”.  

 

You ask Danny to take you back to the hospital. She almost argues, but after she looks you over she agrees to take you back anyways.

 

As soon as you land Danny gives you a small smile and disappears again. You sit back down next to Perry because Will is asleep in what you think must be the most uncomfortable position across a couple of chairs.

 

“I basically had to force him to get some rest,” Perry whispers to you. “He didn’t want to, but he was so exhausted he couldn’t help but fall asleep.”

 

You laugh as Will let’s out a huge snore.

 

“You should sleep too, Laura,” Perry says.

 

You shake your head. “There’s no way I can sleep knowing that she might not make it.”

 

Perry frowns and places a hand on your knee. “You know she’s going to. She’ll fight, now that she has things worth fighting for.”

 

You two go back into comfortable silence. You don’t realize that you actually fell asleep until Perry shakes you lightly.

 

A different nurse form before is standing in front of you. Both of you stand up, and you cross over to Will, who’s still asleep, and tap him gently. He startles awake, disoriented about where he is for a couple of seconds, but his eyes settle in on your face and you give him a smile as you help him stand up. You start to let go of his hand but he doesn’t let you; he’s preparing for the worst.

 

“You’re William Luce, Miss Karnstein’s brother, yes?” the young doctor asks, holding out his hand. "I'm Theo." 

 

“Yes, I am,” Will nods, letting go of your hand so all of you can shake the doctor’s hand.  “Please tell me this isn’t the bad news speech.”

 

You don’t realize you’re holding your breath until the man responds with a head shake and a smile. “No, Mr. Luce, your sister is stable. She’s being transferred to recovery at this very moment.”

 

“She’s going to be okay?” he asks, so relieved that he leans into you. You feel yourself relax and give the first real smile you’ve had all night.

 

“I’m afraid so, Mr. Luce. Other than the two fractures in her arm and leg, she has some bruised ribs. All in all, it seems those injuries will heal up just fine.”

 

“What do you mean, ‘those injuries’ _?_ ” Will asks, and your stomach sinks.

 

“It’s impossible to tell how the hemorrhage in her brain will affect her. She could make a complete recovery, or she could have other complications like memory loss or trouble with speech. There’s no way to know until she wakes up.”

 

“But she _will_ wake up, right?” Will insists.

 

Theo nods. “It’s been rough, but like I said, Miss Karnstein is stable. I can you to see her if you’d like, Mr. Luce, so you can be there when she wakes up.”

 

Will glances at you, and you can’t tell if he’s nervous or excited. You nod encouragingly for him to follow the nurse; he deserves to see his sister.

 

“Can Laura come too?” Will looks back to Theo, who had been checking something on his clipboard.

 

“We really only like to allow family until the patient is conscious,” he frowns. “I’m really sorry.”

 

“But she’s Carmilla’s girlfriend,” Will steps forward. Your heart involuntarily clenches at the word _girlfriend_. “She’s family just as much as I am.”

 

Theo looks up from the clipboard and nods. “Okay. Let’s go.”

 

You turn back to Perry before following him, and she nods before you can say anything. “Don’t worry, I’ll tell the others. We’ll be in there as soon as we can.”

 

“Thanks, Perry,” you respond before the nurse leads you and Will down the hall to the elevators. You go up a floor and after a few twists and turns you finally make it to the recovery section of the hospital. The three of you greet the friendly young receptionist and head back into another hallway. You pass a few rooms with closed doors before the doctor checks his clipboard again.

 

“Ah, here we are, room 6,” Theo reads off before opening the door.

 

Will steps in first, and you hear him gasp as he takes in the sight. You look back to the nurse, scared to see how bad it is, and he gives you a small smile before nodding towards the room.

 

You take a breath and walk into the room.

 

Carmilla doesn’t look as bad as you’d been imagining, but she didn’t look like she was ready to walk out the door either. They dressed the small cut on her forehead and wrapped gauze around her head. Her hair that’s flowing from beneath the bandages is no longer a matted mess full of bits of concrete; they probably cleaned and combed through it prior to surgery.

 

_Get yourself together, Hollis. After all she’s been through and you’re focusing on how great her hair looks?_

 

Her left arm is covered in a soft cast and you can see the bulge in the blanket from the soft cast you assume is on her right leg as well. There’s an IV in her opposite elbow and a cannula in her nose.

 

Another nurse is observing the vital-monitoring equipment and she smiles at both of you. “Miss Karnstein should wake up in about an hour. I know you two would like some alone time to process everything, so if you need anything please contact the receptionist at the front desk.”

 

Soon we’re alone. Will pulls two chairs from the corner of the room and pulls them up next to the bed. You both take a seat.  

 

“This is a blackmail worthy moment,” Will smiles softly and pulls his phone out of his pocket. It’s the first smile he’s given since this whole thing started.  

 

You can’t help but roll your eyes as he snaps a couple pictures. “You’re such a dipshit.”

 

* * * *

You have to say that waking up in a hospital bed is much more comfortable than waking up covered in concrete.

 

“Welcome back to the world, Kitty,” your brother’s voice rings out, and you look to your right ( _shit_ that hurt) and see that both he and Laura are sitting there, staring at you like you’ve come back from the dead.

 

“Hey,” Laura smiles brightly at you, and _God you need to tell her how beautiful she is even though she looks like she hasn’t slept in days_.

 

You open your mouth to answer but your mind blanks on what you were going to say. What were you going to say? Shit.

 

Suddenly the door opens and you quickly snap your head to the left ( _Fuck that wasn’t wise_ ) to see that two people in hospital scrubs are walking in.

 

“Miss Karnstein, I’m Theo, and this is Mel,” the young man introduces.  “You might not remember how you got here, but you’re at St. Baron’s hospital…”

 

He and the other nurse go on to explain just how fucked up you got. You slowly reach up and feel that your head is wrapped in gauze. You glance over at Will and Laura and see that they’re still looking at you.

 

 _You know I’m not going to disappear if you look away_ , you want to say.

 

“…injuries like this are unpredictable. You can have memory loss or you might some issues expressing your words,” the female nurse is saying. “Sometimes the ends of thoughts might not come to you or you might have issues controlling your hands or toes. Or you can make a full recovery. We simply don’t know how this will play out because it affects everyone differently…”

 

They continue talking but you zone them out. You figure Will and Laura are listening enough for all three of you.

 

You’d been relieved when you woke up in the hospital. That meant you were alive; you’d make it out of the collapsing building alive.

 

You didn’t even think there was even a possibility that you could’ve been… you were, uh… uh… _shit what was the word?_

 

Broken.

 

You figured you’d have broken bones if you woke up. Not a broken brain.

 

Everyone’s looking at you now. What…?

 

“I know you probably don’t want to see Danny, LaF, and Perry and J.P., but they’re worried about you, Carm,” Laura says.

 

Oh.

 

“Uh, yeah,” you respond, your voice hoarse.

 

The nurses both nod, give you a smile, and head out. Laura and Will are still staring at you.

 

It’s… _fuck_ …it’s, uh…unnerving. It's unnerving. 

 

“Danny helped fish you out, you know,” Will says. “So if you could play nice that’d be great.”

 

“Okay,” you say. Your mind is still…reeling... right, _reeling_ , with the fact that you can’t remember words. Will picks up on something being wrong.  

 

“How’s it going, Kitty?”

 

Form a sentence, Karnstein. If you don’t they’ll get really worried. You can’t handle them looking at you with…shit, uh… pity. Yeah, pity.

 

“That was a kick,” you sigh. Laura laughs and Will rolls his eyes.

 

The others burst through the door.

 

“Hey, ‘Milla," Mattie greets. 

 

“How are ya feeling, bro?” Kirsch smiles. 

 

"I'm really glad you're doing all right, Carmilla," J.P. says. 

 

They gather around the end of your bed. Even Mattie and Elsie, which surprises you. Everyone looks really tired, but at least they’re all okay.

 

“You look really hardcore, so there’s that.”

 

“LaFontaine!”

 

“What? I’m sure Laura digs scars,” LaFontaine smirks at you, and you can’t help but laugh at the blush that crosses Laura’s face.

 

“We’re glad you’re still alive and well, Elvira,” Danny says. “In case you couldn’t tell.”

 

“I’m sure you…uh,” _Fuck_ , “especially.”

 

No one even bats an eye at the fact that you fucked up the sentence. You _did_ forget the word ‘especially’ for a moment, right? You didn't just imagine it?

 

“I still have many arguments as to why Deathstroke is superior to Deadpool,” Danny smirks. “I'm happy you survived because now I get the chance to use them.”

 

“In your dreams,” you roll your eyes. “So, uh… um… how long was I out?”

 

“It’s almost seven in the morning,” Will answers. 

 

“Well, Carmilla, I’m certain you could really use some rest,” Perry says. “So why don’t we all go back to Mattie’s apartment and we’ll come visit you tomorrow.”

 

Danny takes everyone but Laura. Will insists that she be the one to stay, and although you try to argue that no one needs to stay, they pretty much ignore you.

 

At first you pretend to fall asleep in hopes that Laura will follow. But when you open your eyes a while later you see that she’s still wide awake.

 

“Hey,” she says.

 

“Hey,” you respond.

 

“How are you _really_?”

 

You shrug (your ribs aren’t thankful). “My brain is stupid and can’t, uh…can’t…”

 

Laura sits up and puts her hand in yours. A warmness fills you. “I’m not going to pretend like everything is going to go back to the way it was before, but as long as you’re alive and well I don’t really care.”

 

“Cupcake, that was pretty cliché,” you smirk.

 

She smiles and _god_ , you’re grateful for that smile. It means everything is going to be okay. 

 

* * * *

**6 Months Later**

 

 

“Carmilla! Come on!” you call, pulling a bagel from the toaster and throwing it onto a plate. “We’re going to be late!”

 

You sigh as you hear the water from the shower shut off—that girl better clean her hair out of it this time.

 

After putting some cream cheese on the bagel you sit down on the couch and flick the TV on.

 

“…today Damien Hitchcock and Lilita Morgan’s ruling will be revealed. They were both arrested back in October of last year for allegedly kidnapping over 100 powers, and for blowing up the very compound where they were holding them. Thankfully, most of the victims had already escaped the premises, but the explosion caused three to be critically injured, including themselves…”

 

You change the channel. Carmilla had given her statement but refused to be a part of the trial; no one even knew that it was a bunch of college age kids that saved the kidnapped powers. The news channels kind of honed in on the fact that the Dean of Silas was kidnapping powers. In a way all of you were grateful the media had no idea about you and the others—everyone just wanted things to go back to normal.

 

The doctors recommended that Carmilla stay with someone close after she got discharged from the hospital for a few weeks, and you insisted that she stay at your apartment. Will even had to agree; the Zeta dorms were no place for Carmilla to heal and Mattie had a business to run.

 

Those first few weeks were rough. She was really hard on herself and her brain for forgetting words and thoughts. She would lock herself up in the bedroom and read, refusing to go to classes and barely leave the apartment. Eventually you got her to somewhat open up and you both decided that a therapist would be good for her, after all she’s been through with her mother and then the events at the compound.

 

Carmilla went to the sessions but they didn’t seem to change anything. She didn’t open up to her therapist like you had hoped she would. She would talk to you sometimes, but most of the time she tried to act like nothing was wrong.

 

You asked her and Will to come home with you for winter break. Their mother, after all, was being held until the trial, so there was no way for them to have a family dinner or anything (not that they would want to). Your dad welcomed you all home and treated them like family. You had thought that he would ask questions; a new Dean was being hired next semester and you’re sure that the events of the kidnapped powers and the compound had made national news. But he didn’t. Your dad, whom had been overprotective since your mother had died, didn’t push for any answers. He didn’t ask why Carmilla stuttered, or why Will didn’t like to sleep in the dark while his sister had to sleep in it.

 

Carmilla and Will were hesitant to take part in the family traditions with you and your dad at first, but soon all of you were going and picking out a tree, hanging up all the lights and decorations, and making gingerbread houses. One night you got up to get some water and caught Carmilla and your dad outside on the porch, talking. You smiled behind the sliding glass door as Carmilla laughed; that was something you hadn’t heard in a long time. From that point she started to get better.

 

With time she didn’t lose her words as much. Her sarcasm came back. She started to put the broody and disaffected front back up. She went back to making fun of Danny and the others. She’s basically back to being the same old Carmilla.

 

Less common words still escape her for a few moments, but in general she can usually have a complete conversation. It gets really bad if she gets nervous or is under pressure. But even then, she always remembers her words or thoughts eventually. 

 

Suddenly everything in front of you is dark, pulling you from your thoughts.

 

“Seriously, Carm?” you ask, taking another bite of your bagel in the blackness. "Sometimes I wish we had never made Hitchcock switch our powers back."

 

“You were somewhere else, buttercup,” Carmilla smirks and ignores your comment as she pulls the shadows back in their proper places. You see that she’s sitting beside you (her outfit complete in your favorite leather pants) and she grabs the last bite of your bagel from the plate on your lap and eats it. “You’re the one that says we have to go, and here you are daydreaming.”

 

You sigh and stand up. “If you didn’t take so long in the shower I wouldn’t have started to daydream.”

 

Carmilla rolls her eyes and she stands up and walks over to you. “You don’t seem to mind the long showers when you join me.”

 

You feel the blush hit your cheeks and she wraps her arms around you and starts to lean in. Her lips meet yours and suddenly you’re not so concerned with getting to the Arena in time; LaF and Danny always end up fighting each other first anyways.

 

After a few seconds she pulls away. You frown when you open your eyes to see that she’s heading towards the door to lock it. She heads back towards you and holds out her hand. “We’re going to be late, cupcake. Xena just makes it so easy to kick her ass.”

 

You shake your head and smile as you grab your bag and take a hold of her hand. Suddenly both of you are surging through the blackest void you have ever seen.

 

Your smile widens because even though you can’t see anything, the hand in yours confirms that Carmilla is with you. She’ll always be with you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoop, there it is!
> 
> Carmilla lives! Everyone gets their powers back! Morgan and Hitchcock will most likely rot in jail! Papa Hollis saves Carmilla's sanity! Hollstein ever after! What more could you ask for? 
> 
> Did someone say dragons? Hmm... I'll think about it...
> 
>  
> 
> *cracks knuckles* last time: 
> 
> Laura- empathy/empathy clairaudience, emotional manipulation, telekinetic blast
> 
> Perry- health manipulation, force field generation
> 
> LaF- organic manipulation
> 
> Danny- fire/electricity manipulation
> 
> Kirsch- shapeshifting, specifically animals
> 
> Carmilla- shadow manipulation, shadow portal creation
> 
> Will- teleportation, enhanced strength
> 
> Every single power that I use I refer to http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Superpower_Wiki .
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks!

**Author's Note:**

> EDIT: Okay, so, depending on if people want, I was thinking of doing some extras in this universe? I have some ideas on some things I could write, like Carmilla helping Danny train the very first time before the first warehouse or Perry and LaF's talk that make the idiots realize they like each other, interactions with more non-powers. I'll definitely take suggestions if there's anything you guys really want to see or if I accidentally left questions unanswered that you want to know (but I do have to draw the line at smut because I don't exactly feel comfortable writing that, sorry).
> 
> Right now I don't have any other complete stories for this universe (i.e., a complete sequel), but that might change!
> 
>  
> 
> My non-exclusive Carmilla tumblr: cue1go.tumblr.com
> 
> The work is Beta'd by Lunae_3972_Lecem. 
> 
> Thank you guys so much for the feedback and nice comments! I really appreciate them.


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